Srinagar, Aug 11 Scam stories in Jammu and Kashmir are unique in their own way and the CMD of Jammu and Kashmir Bank was scamster number one, Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam has said.
The officer said that the separatists made Jammu and Kashmir almost like Pakistan and he was told by Prime Minister Narendra Modi before his appointment as the Chief Secretary in the then full-fledged state in June 2018 to clean up the administration, rebuild the region and hand it over to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
"Scam stories about J&K are unique in their own way. This is the only place in the country which has its own bank. No state government had their own banks," Subrahmanyam said on the first anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.
All erstwhile rulers of Indian states had their own banks, like Bikaner, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Mysore that were just associated banks of State Bank of India, and they all have now merged, he said.
"The J&K Bank CMD is the scamster number one. I knew it from the day one.... It was identified through its lovely way of milking the state... they politic) were milking the state directly through the bank. There are about 20 families or a maximum of 30 who milked the J&K Bank. The common man does not know it."
"Because it is a banking institution and one does not want to disturb it," the 1987-batch IAS officer said, "common people think J&K Bank is a showpiece of the region, but it is different when I bring out the truth."
The officer said that J&K Bank guesthouses are luxuries and its officials' lifestyles are big. "The pay scales of the bank staff beat the private sector, and all this goes on on government money. That is the worst part," he said. The officer said he got a resolution passed in the Cabinet in November 2018 on the issue.
"If we own 60 per cent, so you are a public-sector bank. It's a statement of fact. It's not a decision. You will be submitting your annual report to the legislators. You will be subject to the jurisdiction of the RTI
( With inputs from IANS )