In a major development, a Dalit whistle blower IAS officer Ashok Kumar Parmar has knocked the doors of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) against Lt Governor Manoj Sinha and chief secretary Arun Mehta for “inflicting harassment and humiliation upon him.”

The 1992 AGMUT cadre IAS Parmar who had highlighted “irregularities” in implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission in Jammu and Kashmir, in a complaint to the chairman NCSC has alleged that he was also being frequently transferred for his being a scheduled caste solely for the reason that he blew whistle and highlighted “bunglings” in the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission of Jal Shakti Department in J&K.

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Parmar, who is currently posted as Chairman, Bureau of Public Enterprises, has accused Sinha and Mehta of “harrasment, humiliation, intimidation, atrocious behaviour and frequent transfers for his being a Scheduled Caste solely for the reason that he blew whistle and highlighted bunglings in implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission.”

Parmar was appointed as principal secretary, Jal Shakti Department in J&K, on 4 May 2022.
In his comprehensive complaint dated 17 August, the officer who is a native of Gujarat has made startling revelations that “LG Manoj Sinha on 6 June 2022 had thrown him out of the meeting room with the objective to harass and humiliate him without any fault and this was done in front of all the administrative secretaries of UT of J&K.”

He also alleged that the “Chief Secretary of J&K Dr Arun Kumar Mehta on 25 July 2023 also humiliated and threw him out of the meeting of the Committee of Secretaries without any fault and he has been subjected to frequent transfers in violation of the transfer policy of the government of India.”

He further alleged that this process of “intimidation and harassment was done purposely due to prejudice and bias against him for being a Scheduled Caste and his act of highlighting bunglings in Jal Jeevan Mission.”

Parmar in his complaint has further alleged that he intimated L-G Manoj Sinha, Chief Secretary Mehta and Advisor to LG RR Bhatnagar about the “dismal status of implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission vide his letter dated 20 July, 2022 that Jal Jeevan Mission is being implemented in J&K without doing SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) Analysis and pointed out in the meeting dated 2 August 2022 that works on account of JJM are slow because of erroneous and faulty procedure for allotment of works by misinterpreting the clause 4.5.2 of Manual of Procurement of Works, 2019 that one contractor can be awarded only 2 works at a time and DG Code confirmed that this clause is only valid for petty works to promote Startups and is not applicable to general works/tenders.

The IAS officer has further alleged that the complainant being a Scheduled Caste IAS Officer has apprehensions that LG J&K and Chief Secretary might go to any extent to damage his reputation and career by implicating him in false cases as he had pointed out many financial irregularities and acts of omission and commission of Mehta, Chief Secretary, RR Bhatnagar Advisor to LG and others in the implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission.

He has written that he had intimated the Prime Minister’s Office, Home Ministry and ministry of Jal Shakti about the J&K officers giving “false, concocted, misleading and factually incorrect figures regarding implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) under which every rural household is to be provided tap water by 2024.”