Ganai goes on protest leave after Sharma’s appointment as CS

Kumar not to move court, to submit papers for VRS
Ganai goes on protest leave after Sharma’s appointment as CSMiffed over government decision to appoint his junior, B R Sharma as chief secretary, Financial Commissioner (FC) Industries, Khurshid Ganai, Tuesday went on a “ protest leave’’ till  October 31, when he retires.
A top government official said Ganai applied for the “preparatory leave’’ before his retirement with the General Administration Department (GAD).
“Under the service rules, officers can take six month leave ahead of their retirement and Ganai has availed the leave,” he said.
The official said both Ganai and FC Revenue, Arun Kumar, have made known their “displeasure’’ with the government over the appointment of B R Sharma as Chief Secretary.
Sharma superseded senior officers —  Arun Kumar, his wife Sonali Kumar (both 1979 batch IAS officers),  A K Angurana (1980 batch) and Khursheed Ahmad Ganai (1982 batch).
Sources said Ganai has made known his displeasure to the government over the appointment. “He he made it clear that he couldn’t have worked under his junior in the government.”
“It would have been difficult for Ganai to report to Sharma, who is his junior. For this reason, Ganai has opted for the leave. Both the newly appointed Chief Secretary and Ganai were working in the Secretariat and this would have made his position untenable,” they said.
Sources said government should have given Ganai, who is the senior most officer, some independent posting outside the secretariat.
The previous NC-Congress coalition government had recommended Ganae’s name as chairman of the statutory recruitment body, Public Service Commission. However, after Governor, N N Vohra, raised objections over names of members of the Commission, the government headed by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed,  decided to make senior IAS officer, Lateef-u-Zaman Deva as the PSC Chairperson.
The government had made known its intent to appoint Sharma as the Chief Secretary after he functioned as the Secretary to the cabinet in absence of former Chief Secretary, Iqbal Khanday, who had been on leave after the death of grandson of his brother.
Khanday had taken an exception to this and immediately applied for voluntary retirement from service.
Meanwhile, sources said Arun Kumar has decided to apply for the premature retirement, and is preparing the papers.
“He will be shortly submitting them to the government. Kumar does not want to challenge the decision of the government to appoint B R Sharma as chief secretary in the court,” they said.

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