NEW DELHI: The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) officials have sought action against the Principal Secretary to Jammu And Kashmir LG, Nitishwar Kumar, for ordering the arrest of its senior officials as the construction of dormitories for Amarnath pilgrimage has been halted at Ramban.
Besides, Nitishwar Kumar, the CPWD officials have demanded action against Superintendent of Police, Ramban, Mohita Sharma.
This comes amid the latest row over the transfer of Sanjeev Khirwar, the bureaucrat who allegedly cleared a Delhi stadium to walk his dog, to Ladakh due to outrage over his actions. His wife, Rinku Dugga, also a bureaucrat, was transferred to Arunachal Pradesh.
Nitishwar Kumar is considered the right-hand man of LG Manoj Sinha and holds charge as the Chief Executive Officer of the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB), as well as Principal Secretary, Power Development Department J&K. An Uttar Pradesh-cadre IAS officer, Nitishwar Kumar, is on deputation to Jammu and Kashmir.
Acting on the directions of Kumar, Sharma detained Executive Engineer (Civil) RK Mattu and Assistant Engineer (Civil) Rizwan Alam for over 10 hours on May 25.
Central Engineering Service Group A (Direct Recruits) Association and Central PWD Engineers Association have written separately to Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Puri and Lt Governor Sinha seeking action against both Kumar and SP Sharma.
Nitishwar had arrived in Ramban on May 25 morning for a scheduled inspection of the progress of dormitories being constructed by the CPWD for Amarnath pilgrims. According to several sources, Kumar took objection to the work being incomplete and CPWD Executive Engineer (Civil) RK Mattu not being available at the site.
CPWD Superintending Engineer Mohan said that construction work has been halted and neither labourers nor officials are visiting the site. Nitishwar has verbally instructed SP Ramban to detain the engineers.
The detained engineers were first kept at Police Station Ramban and later at a guest house.
The same day, Superintending Engineer, Jammu circle, Mohan Lal sent a letter to UT Chief Secretary Arun Kumar Mehta, with copies to the Director-General of Police, Principal Secretary to L-G (Niteshwar Kumar), the Officer on Special Duty to the L-G, and CPWD Director-General, among others, detailing what had happened.
If the sources are believed there has been infighting going on between officials of the J&K administration and officials in New Delhi. It is learnt that officials in New Delhi want elections in Jammu and Kashmir as they accuse the J&K administrations of foiling any step towards the elections.