J&K IAS officer alleges irregularities in Jal Jeevan Mission

The JJM scheme aims to provide potable drinking water in taps to all rural homes by 2024.

A senior Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer has alleged irregularities in the procurement of pipes for the flagship Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) scheme, which has a ₹14,000 crore budget in Jammu and Kashmir.

In a detailed complaint to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Ashok Kumar Parmar, a 1992-batch IAS officer, has alleged that pipes which were unsuitable for the hilly and remote areas of Jammu and Kashmir were shortlisted by a committee that directly reports to the Chief Secretary of J&K, flouting all norms. Mr. Parmar was posted as principal secretary of J&K’s Jal Shakti Department between May 4 and August 7, 2022.

In another complaint to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), Mr. Parmar has alleged that J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and J&K Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta both harassed, intimidated and threatened him, due to their prejudice and bias against him for being a Scheduled Caste IAS officer. He feared that he may be implicated in false cases, as he had pointed out many financial irregularities and acts of omission and commission in the implementation of JJM in the Union Territory.

The Scheduled Caste office, hailing from Bharuch in Gujarat, has more than 30 years of experience. He alleged that after the Jal Shakti posting, he had been frequently transferred, once within 12 days, in violation of the transfer policy of the Government of India. He recounted an incident when he was “thrown out of the meeting room” by the L-G on June 6, 2022, and another incident when he was thrown out of the Committee of Secretaries meeting, held on July 25, 2023.

Denying the allegations, a senior J&K government official told The Hindu that the concerned officer was removed on grounds of irregularities.

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In his complaint to Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla on July 18, Mr. Parmar alleged that the chief engineer of the Jal Shakti department, Kashmir division had floated tenders to supply centrifugally cast (or spun) ductile iron pipes for ₹690 crore, based on an existing contract under a non-JJM scheme. The tender was floated in January 2022 and the orders were placed after a gap of six months in June 2022 under non-JJM specification, the complaint accessed by The Hindu said.