Kashmir Digits

After terminating government employees and withholding salaries of teachers for “anti-national” activities, the Jammu and Kashmir government has now decided to not allot tenders to individuals/firms with “links to anti-nationals”, The Wire reported on Tuesday.

“Taking serious note of the issue of some individuals and firms with dubious antecedents and direct and indirect links with anti-national elements getting government contracts, all administrative secretaries were advised to devise appropriate mechanisms to ensure that no such individual or firm gets any contract/ supply order from the government,” the Wire report quotes the minutes of a meeting held at the Civil Secretariat, Srinagar on May 31.

The high-profile meeting, as per the report, was chaired by J&K’s Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha along with top bureaucrats including chief secretary Arun Kumar Mehta, outgoing chief secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam and all administrative secretaries.

“While the government claims that contractors with dubious credentials and links with anti-national elements are getting contracts, no such case has come into the public domain in recent years,” the report reads further.

“Under the existing mechanism, an individual has to submit a character certificate issued by the police along with other documents for registration as a contractor in J&K. According to a notification issued by the J&K administration during President’s Rule in 1992, the documents required for registration as a contractor include a character certificate to be issued by an officer not below the rank of superintendent of police of the district concerned after verification from the Criminal Investigation Department,” the report reads.