Minorities welfare department heads axed routinely, flouting rules...... HYDERABAD: The minorities welfare department ( MWD) was rendered headless yet again following the transfer of secretary Ahmed Nadeem on Tuesday who had served for just two-and-a-half months, earning the department the dubious distinction of having four secretaries in a span of two years. A serving IAS officer, requesting anonymity, said that Nadeem, who has an engineering background, fell prey to incessant political pressure exerted from the top. He failed to realise that the several representations made to the department were either for ‘settling personal vendettas’ or for lodging complaints against one another. “Buckling under intense pressure from minorities minister Mohammed Ahmadullah, Nadeem had recently sent a letter to the AP State Wakf Board questioning the validity of the Dargah Hussain Shah Wali managing committee, which is involved in a legal battle against the government in the 1,654 acre Manikonda land case in the Supreme Court,” said the senior officer. Another case in point is the ‘irregular’ leasing of Alladin Wakf worth crores at Madina for which Nadeem had pushed for a CB-CID inquiry, the officer added. Former IAS officer Mohammed Shafiquzzaman noted that the frequent transfers in the beleaguered department was in violation of IAS Cadre Rules. “Rule number seven of the IAS Cadre Rules provides that no officer, except the chief secretary, should be transferred from his post before completion of two years. In matters of urgency, the officer can be moved after obtaining the approval of the Minimum Tenure Committee. However, the term of this committee expired two years ago. The government is violating its own rules,” he said. Nadeem’s predecessor, Md Ali Rafath, who took charge in July, 2011 was shunted out in March 2012 and was replaced by Dana Kishore in April last year. Kishore too was transferred in February 2013 and was succeeded by Rani Kumudini in March 2013 who was transferred in May the same year. None served for more than eight months at the department. “With the exception of Kumudini, all were shown the door due to political pressure. Kishore had even requested to take additional charge of the department after being handed over information and public relations, but it was turned down,” said another IAS officer, who too did not wish to be named. The frequent arrival and departure of babus has had an adverse effect on the performance of the department’s agencies. Frequent representations and proposals to increase strength so as to increase efficiency have either met with outright refusal or have been stuck in red tape. Take for instance, the AP State Wakf Board which has a sanctioned cadre strength of 231 but is trudging with only 184. Worse, it has only one wakf surveyor for the entire state. “How can an agency be efficient if there is only one inspector-auditor to cover over 3,000 wakf properties running into thousands of acres in RR district? All requests to increase strength since 2009 were shot down by the government,” said board member Syed Altaf Hyder Razvi. Similarly, the AP Minorities Finance Corporation which has a sanctioned cadre strength of 116 has 49 unfilled vacancies, which include executive director posts. The recently formed Minorities Commissionerate is no exception as posts of deputy director and junior assistants, among others, are yet to be filled. The Urdu Academy too is without a chairman and the Haj Committee has not been reconstituted after its term expired last August.TOI
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 06:01:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015