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| Soft spoken PDP spokesman turns 'angry young man' | | Naeem Akther snubs party MLA for highlighting shortcomings of Education deptt | | Bashir Assad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, May 8: The soft spoken Peoples Democratic Party spokesman Naeem Akther has changed abruptly since the day he has become the Education Minister of Jammu and Kashmir. He has been hogging headlines for snubbing teachers, his colleagues and the common people who visit his office to get their grievances redressed.
On Friday the Education Minister entered into a heated argument with his party colleague and MLA Kokernag Abdul Rahim Rather at civil secretariat here when the later tried to seek his attention towards a problem in the Education Department in his constituency.
Eyewitnesses told Early Times that Rather tried to apprise the minister about the public outcry in his area against a senior official of the department. On this, Akhtar ostensibly lost his temper and said that he was not sitting in his chair to slit the throat of the concerned official.
Rather very politely stated that the department was in a shambles, and needs to be revamped. The MLA also specifically pointed out that a Zonal Education Officer in his area was not performing well, and should be replaced in the interest of both the department and the public, witnesses added.
They said that Akhtar shouted at Rather, and said, "Go and tell the Chief Minister to divest me of the charge of the department."
On this, Rather responded, "The department is really in a bad shape, and nothing has been done so far to improve the state of affairs."
The MLA added that it was very unfortunate that the government was missing on ground, and people were hoping against hope to see somepositive action.
Meanwhile, a senior officer in the Civil Secretariat said that Akhtar was intentionally targeting the PDP MLAs because he wants a change of portfolio.
He said that the Education Department has the largest workforce. The officer said that since Akhtar has not risen as a grassroot-level political worker and was neither a public figure, he is not able to connect positively with the workforce, and utilize their capabilities effectively.
The officer further revealed that Akhtar is interested in taking over the Tourism Department. Other senior officers admitted that the Tourism Department is highly vital to the fiscal health of the state and also the people. Hence, the Tourism Department was being directly looked after by the Chief Minister.
The officer said that the teaching and non-teaching staff of the Education Department is an organized workforce. Akhtar is apprehensive of a revolt, essentially because the employee leaders have already threatened to launch a massive agitation if their demands are not met.
It merits mention here that when the government apparatus was in Jammu, a PDP MLA and Minister of State also had a heated argument with Akhtar. The MoS had reportedly accused Akhtar of misbehaving with the people when they came to his office chamber for the redressal of their grievances.
Despite repeated attempts Akther didn't pick up the phone. Irony is that when he was the PDP spokesman and party was in the opposition he used to return the calls of the scribes even if they used to give a missed call. |
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