RESTORE AUTONOMY TO J&K BANK

The political parties have welcomed the Governor’s decision to re-examine banks accountability to legislature, writes Daily Kashmir Observer, editorially. However, the Governor says that PSU has no legal connotation and  bank will continue to operate under Companies Act. But the Governor needs to go the whole hog and allow the bank to work the way it was working. The need is to strengthen corporate governance in J&K and reinforce its autonomy.

Excerpts:

Not a Right Decision:

“In a welcome change of heart, Governor Satya Pal Malik has offered to review the J&K Bank’s accountability to legislature in a bid to address the ongoing protests by the employees and the wider political and civil society opposition to his move of turning the profit-making institution into a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU). According to Governor, the PSU status for the bank has “no legal connotations” as the bank will continue to operate under the Companies Act. He also said that  the state government would support all initiatives and take the necessary steps to make the bank a “vibrant institution”.  However, Mr. Malik defended the provision in the proposal approved by the State Administrative Council, which ruled that the J&K Right to Information Act, 2009, will be applicable to the bank just like other state-owned undertakings. “Transparency will be good for the bank in the long term,” Mr. Malik said. The National Conference and the PDP have welcomed the Governor’s decision to re-examine the bank’s accountability to the state legislature.  But they have sought the complete rollback of the Government’s proposal to turn the bank into a PSU. But this is something that the Governor’s statement is silent about. This remains a  persisting reason for concern.  As a PSU, the bank will be accountable to the state legislature, and the Finance Department will be required to place the bank’s annual report before the Assembly. The Governor says that the word PSU has no legal connotations but at the same time the bank is sought to be designated as one. This is confusing. How can a company be a PSU and not be accountable to legislature. If latter is the case why not also withdraw the PSU tag itself?”

Prerogative of Elected Government:

“And also why should a Governor’s administration embark on these deeply contentious so-called reforms when they are best left to decide for an elected government? There is no convincing answer. This has rightly created suspicions about the intent of the move. The J&K Bank is an important institution, the only one in the country to be owned by the state government, which has a 59 percent stake in it under the special status for Jammu and Kashmir News. But despite that the bank has been allowed to operate largely as a corporate entity. And it has stood to gain as a result. It is the only profitable institution in the state and is the second largest employer after the state government. Besides, J&K Bank is a listed company on the Nifty and Bombay Stock Exchange.  Foreign Institutional Investors (FPIs)are among it’s shareholders. Besides thousands of people have invested in its stocks. Any doubt about its governance structure and uncertainty about its profitability will negatively impact the share prices of the bank, leading to  FPIs offloading their investment. There is thus so much that is at stake. A situation like this calls for a government to act responsibly.  Governor has shown some appreciation of the state of affairs by promising to withdraw a part of his proposal. But he needs to go the whole hog. The need of the hour is to strengthen corporate governance in J&K Bank and reinforce its autonomy, not hand the bank over to the state government”.

[Courtesy:  Daily Kashmir Observer, Srinagar, December 06, 2018].

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PULWAMA KILLINGS - Kashmir Trends

In an editorial comment, Daily Kashmir Images writes that while dealing with the militants, security forces should ensure that civilian population is not harmed. However, as the comment concludes that Kashmir society should ponder over the issue that when a gun battle is taking place involving militants and security forces, civilian should avoid jumping in the fray.

Excerpts:

Civilians Killings: – 

In a bid to kill three militants, if you end up killing seven civilians and injuring dozens others, there definitely is something wrong with your operational preparedness and also with your attitude towards the people amongst whom you are operating. What happened at a Pulwama village on 15^th December morning was uncalled for and no matter what explanations are put forth by the security forces involved in the operation, no saner element in the world will buy those explanations. Seven unarmed civilians were killed and all of them were fired upon directly hitting in heads and chests. It was a fire to kill and not some ‘frightening fire to disperse an unruly mob’. Yes, the forces involved in the operation may be patting themselves for killing three militants and thus doing a ‘great service to the nation’. But then pause for a while and think – while doing so, they have ended up killing seven civilians, shattering seven families and alienating countless others.

Explanation: –

The explanation by police that “crowd came dangerously close” to the site of the gunfight can’t be accepted as a valid reason to open direct fire on civilians. There was nothing new in what happened at Pulwama encounter. From past more than two years it has been happening. Crowds have been trying to disrupt the operations by throwing rocks on forces. So it has become a norm and when something, you know, is going to happen, you prepare your operational strategy keeping that thing in view and thus should have by now come up with something tangible to avoid civilian casualties in such circumstances. But nothing of the sort has happened and the security forces are reacting the way they reacted to first civilian intervention during an operation in 2016. Means, no lessons have been learnt and that is tragic.

Looking Inwards:

That said, we as a society too have to look inwards and question ourselves. Aren’t we also somewhere responsible for such killings? Aren’t we shutting our eyes to certain realities? When a security operation is going on, the area becomes restricted for all civilian movements. This happens everywhere in the world and Kashmir is no exception. What started in Pulwama village was a military operation. Armed rivals were engaged in a gun battle. Both had the capacity to kill and will to die. Three militants and an army man got killed. Combatants fighting combatants – fair enough (though intention is not to justify any kind of violence but both the sides are holding arms out of their own choice). Question is, why should civilians march towards a wrong place at a wrong time? When two sides, armed to the teeth, are busy in a gun battle any unarmed civilian jumping into the fighting arena can either be insane or having suicidal tendencies. That is the question we as a society have to ask ourselves. What the security forces did at Pulwama is barbaric and inhuman but what we as unarmed civilians are doing at encounter sites is insane and suicidal. It is the responsibility of the leadership, from all schools of thought to do something to arrest this dangerous trend. We as a society have to do something and do immediately to stop our children jumping into harm’s way. Galvanizing martyrs is okay but saving lives is more important and much needed.”

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[Courtesy: Daily Kashmir Images, Srinagar, Kashmir, December 17, 2018.]