Ashok Parmar, a Dalit Indian Administrative Services officer of the principal secretary rank, alleged that he was being harassed by the Jammu and Kashmir Union Territory administration for flagging irregularities in a drinking water scheme.
Parmar who has been transferred on five occasions in the last one year, has filed a complaint with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes.
In the complaint, Parmar alleged harassment, threats and intimidation by the J&K administration after he blew the lid off massive irregularities in the Jal Shakti department, NDTV reported.
The senior officer also alleges that he was thrown out of two high-level meetings and humiliated in front of other officers.
“[Lieutenant Governor] Manoj Sinha threw me out of the meeting room on June 6, 2022, to harass and humiliate me without my fault,” he alleged.
Parmar, who was on central deputation, got repatriated to the AGMUT cadre in March 2022. Following this, he assumed the role of Principal Secretary for Irrigation and Flood Control. However, on May 5, 2022, he was reassigned to the position of Principal Secretary of the Jal Shakti department. Parmar claimed that after exposing departmental scams, he was swiftly transferred to the Department of ARI and Trainings. Subsequently, on July 18, he was moved to Skill Development. Remarkably, within two weeks, on August 1, he was yet again transferred and appointed as the chairman of the Bureau of Public Enterprises J&K.
National Conference Vice President and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wrote on X that the allegations were serious enough to deserve an impartial investigation.
“Sadly the news media has completely ignored this story,” he wrote. “They are being kept too busy chasing Ms World & other fluff stories.”
Peoples Democratic Party chief and former CM Mehbooba Mufti said that Parmar had taken “grave risks” to expose the alleged irregularities.
“Instead of punishing culprits responsible for bungling of thousands of 3000 crores in the Jal Jeevan scheme, an upright officer is made to suffer,” she wrote.
