ISI agents on Assam govt's payroll: Report

Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agents are on the Assam government's payroll! An investigation into appointment irregularities conducted by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Department of Assam suggests exactly this.

The V & AC Department that conducted a suo motu inquiry into the irregularities in appointments in Social Welfare department in Assam during the previous regimes of Congress brought presence of suspected ISI agents as government employees in the state to the notice of the state government way back in July 2005.

The inquiry was initiated on the basis of newspaper reports alleging corruption and irregularities in appointment of personnel in the department.

The report of investigation that was conducted following instruction from Deputy Inspector General of V & AC department, suggested the government to institute a regular inquiry into the gross irregular appointments to about 300 posts in the Social Welfare Department in the ranks of Inspectors and lower division assistants.

However, both the previous and present regimes of Congress in the state didn't bother to institute a detailed and formal inquiry to unearth irregularities and corruption, if any, behind appointment of such a large number of employees.

The inquiry alleged that the Director of the Social Welfare Department C R Kalita and Deputy Director I Alam made crores of rupees by taking bribes in lieu of appointments in the department. Investigation report said that each of the candidates were made to pay in the range of Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh for a job.

The report stated that the appointments were made without advertising the posts and appointment letters were issued sans the mandatory police verification of credentials of selected candidates.

Out of the 300 appointed persons 250 belonged to the religious community and the enquiry report raised an alarm that some suspected ISI agents might have sneaked into the Social Welfare Department as employees as proper procedure was not followed while appointing people.

The Opposition regional Asom Gana Parishad has now made an issue against the ruling Congress government for sitting on the report of an inquiry conducted by the V & AC Department for over a year.

The AGP General Secretary Dilip Kumar Saikia dashed a memorandum to the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil seeking their intervention to facilitate an CBI inquiry into the alleged irregularities in appointment in the State Social Welfare Department.

Taking serious note of what is mentioned in the inquiry report of the V & AC Department, the AGP leader stated that if ISI agents had managed to make inroad into the government payroll in the state, it needed be viewed seriously in the interests of national security.

It vowed to move the court seeking appropriate if the government failed to institute proper inquiry into the appointment scam.

However, senior Cabinet minister Gautom Roy who was the minister for social welfare in the previous Congress regime in the state, refuted the allegation and stated that all appointment to the department during the period was made following proper procedure.

He said candidates were called for selection on the basis of the lists of unemployed youth collected from government employment exchanges in the state. Roy said there was no possibility of ISI agents getting employed in the department and said that he was ready to face CBI inquiry, if instituted, into alleged anomalies in appointment procedure.