By Arun Sharma
The job of the Criminal Investigation Department is not to be used as a weapon, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said at the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Thursday as he assured the House that the police verification in the union territory will have to follow the procedure laid down by court.
In his speech Friday, the CM, who was replying to discussions on grants to his department in the ongoing Budget Session, said he shared some of the concerns of various lawmakers when it came to police verification during recruitment. He also quoted the Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh High Court as ruling that one cannot be held guilty for the wrongs of their relatives. “There is no law anywhere that my children get the punishment for the wrongs done by me”.
The remarks come months after as he pitched for relaxation of police verification during recruitment to government jobs in the union territory. “The CID has got a copy of the high court order and they will be asked to follow it in the cases of verifications as there is no way out,” the CM said.
The CM also promised journalists they would not be punished for “speaking the truth”.
“We want them to make the government accountable and highlight our shortcomings. We want the people to know where we lacked”, he said, although he added that the government “will not tolerate circulation of fake news”.
He also promised a transparent policy for government advertisements in the media, saying there would be “no pick and choose in the matter”.
“However, the newspapers who depend only on government advertisement only work to please the administration by publishing government press releases and photographs on the front page. They are not newspapers, but government press notes,” he said.
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
