Guv denies levelling any allegation against J&K Bank recruitment process

Governor Satya Pal Malik Wednesday denied making any allegation on his own against the recent recruitment appointments in J&K Bank and said he had only repeated what he was told by bank officials and aspirants.

"I have not levelled any allegation against it (J&K Bank). I repeated what I was told by the aspirants who had come to me (with complaints about recruitment in the bank)," he added.

The Jammu and Kashmir governor was replying to reporters' queries on a controversy over allegation that an entire list of 582 selected candidates was "changed" to pave way for the appointment of relatives of politicians and their workers during the previous BJP-PDP government's tenure.

The governor was reported to have earlier told a private television news channel that he got this information from the J&K Bank chairman.

The governor had purportedly told the news channel that the chairman had told him this in response to his query about the complaints of 40 youths, who had qualified in the J&K Bank recruitment examination and interview.

The reports said he had subsequently asked the bank chairman to give the youths their due and had also spoken to the the finance secretary on the issue, following which a resolution was adopted and all 582 genuine candidates were given appointment letters.

"I do not want to land in any controversy. I have not given any such statement on J&K Bank. It was wrongly portrayed. I was told by the people from J&K Bank (about the recruitment)," Malik clarified Wednesday.

He said he cannot make any such statement without proper investigation.

"J&K Bank is a wonderful institution of the state," he said.

Senior PDP leader and former Finance Minister Haseeb Dabru had earlier said, "J&K governor has made a startling revelation that J&K Bank's relationship executives' recruitment list of 582 candidates was changed by political leaders."