Ishtiyaq Ahmad
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Aug 28: A dubious known NGO has managed to collect an amount of Rs 13 lakh from the unemployed youth of Kashmir by promising to provide jobs for them.
Sources said the so-called NGO named 'Social Welfare and Rural Development' located at Indra Nagar, Batwara in Srinagar recently put up an advertise in some local dailies of Srinagar seeking applications from eligible candidates for filling around "600 different posts of managers, assistant managers, accountants, accounts officers, front desk assistants, junior assistants, plumbers, electricians, etc in 10 districts of the Valley."
"The NGO has managed to collect huge amount of Rs 13 lakh from hundreds of innocent youth" sources said.
Mehraj Ahmad, who calls himself chairman of the NGO, told Early Times that they have received 6,500 forms. "In response to our advertisement, 6,500 people have applied for the jobs and each person has deposited 200 hundred rupees. We will appoint 600 people in our organization in different posts," he claimed.
However, sources said Mehraj is the same person who used to run the Jammu & Kashmir Rural Development Coordinating Society (JKRDCS) that duped hundreds of youth on the pretext of providing them jobs.
Two years ago, advertisement appeared in some local dailies which were issued by the JKRDCS. Hundreds of unemployed youth had applied for the jobs, but later on it was found that the NGO was a fraud, prompting the duped youth to hold protests. The fraud was unearthed by the police in 2013. The police also arrested three persons who were running that NGO.
Meanwhile, many people wonder how the government is allowing such fraudulent NGOs to run their shops in the Valley.
"This so-called NGO is fraud and has become a moneymaking device from last couple of months. Government should take action against it and probe its credentials," RTI activist Raja Muzaffar Bhat told Early Times.
Bhat also said that the Crime Branch should investigate the work of NGO which they claim to be doing.
The case of looting the unemployed youth is not new; the Crime Branch recently registered a case against at least four NGOs and owners of few consultancies for duping Kashmiri students under the PMSS scheme. |
