Monday, March 13 2006 13:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jammu: The Jammu and Kashmir Speaker Tara Chand today (Mar 13 2006) constituted a House Committee to probe illegal appointments in the state's Public Health Engineering (PHE) and work contracts awarded by it without tenders in the past one year.

After continuous adjournments for the past three days over the issue by opposition National Conference (NC), the Speaker announced the setting-up of a House Committee, adding its terms of reference and members would be announced later.

In reply to questions put by A R Rather and Harsh Dev Singh, PHE Minister Qazi Mohammad Afzal had in a written reply said that 1,691 casual appointments were made in violation of rules and 1,268 work contracts were allotted without tenders in the past one year.

Afzal said that 370 such appointments were made in Srinagar, followed by 368 in Jammu, 265 in Kathua, 242 in Doda, 233 in Baramulla, 107 in Kupwara, 34 in Budgam, 33 in Anantnag and 32 in Poonch district.

Similarly, 1,268 work contracts worth crores of rupees were alloted without tenders in the department, the Minister said.

One hundred and forty-seven water supply schemes were awarded in Doda, 71 in Kathua, 71 in kashmir, 51 schemes in Poonch, 25 in Rajouri, 16 in Jammu and 17 in Udhampur among others, Afzal said.