Action Follows Revelations of Unqualified BAM Controlling Finances for 9 Years; Scrutiny Now on BMO, CMO for Prolonged, Complicit Silence
- In a decisive and swift intervention following a Jammu Jottings exposé, National Health Mission (NHM) Director Dr. Baseer ul Haq Chaudhary has ordered the immediate detachment of NHM employees Nayima Akhter and Rohit Sharma, shattering their nearly decade-long irregular and unauthorized control over key financial posts in Poonch’s health department.
- Serious questions now haunt the local health administration, particularly the BMO Surankote and CMO Poonch, regarding their prolonged and complicit silence over how an unqualified BCA graduate (Nayima Akhter) was allowed to handle sensitive hospital finances for years without requisite qualifications or mandatory biometric attendance.
- While the detachment is a crucial first step, there are now widespread demands for a full-scale audit of qualifications and salary disbursements across Poonch’s health institutions and for accountability to be fixed on the senior officials who enabled this systemic failure to persist for nine years.
HARPREET SINGH
Poonch, July 14, 2025: Shattering a decade-long administrative inertia that allowed a mockery of rules and regulations, National Health Mission (NHM) Director, Dr. Baseer ul Haq Chaudhary, has taken decisive and long-overdue corrective action, ordering the immediate detachment of two NHM employees who had entrenched themselves in key financial posts in Poonch district since 2015. This powerful intervention comes directly in the wake of an explosive exposé by Jammu Jottings that laid bare the systemic irregularities, tenure violations, and glaring lack of oversight that allowed Nayima Akhter and Rohit Sharma to operate beyond their jurisdiction, unchecked, for nearly a decade.
The swiftness of the action signals the gravity with which the NHM Directorate has viewed the revelations. On the direct orders of the Mission Director, a series of orders were issued, bringing an abrupt end to the unauthorized arrangement that began as a “temporary” swap in 2015. As per Order No. SHS/NHM/J&K/73403-07 dated July 11, 2025, and subsequently reinforced by the Block Medical Officer (BMO) Surankote’s Order No. BMO/SKT/EST-III/705-07 dated July 14, 2025, Smt. Nayima Akhter, Block Accounts Manager (NHM), has been relieved from Sub-District Hospital (SDH) Surankote and instructed to report back to District Hospital (DH) Poonch. In a parallel move, Order No. DHP/NHM/2025/217-220, dated July 12, 2025, detaches Mr. Rohit Sharma, NHM Accounts Manager at DH Poonch, and directs him to report to SDH Surankote, effectively reverting both employees to their original places of posting as mandated years ago. “The issue was flagged with utmost seriousness. Orders were executed without delay. Further departmental scrutiny is in progress,” a senior NHM official confirmed.
While this action addresses the flagrant tenure violation, it throws into sharp relief the deeper, more troubling questions of eligibility and accountability that have festered for years. As revealed earlier, Smt. Nayima Akhter, who was unofficially handling the sensitive financial responsibilities of an Accounts Manager, holds a Bachelor’s in Computer Applications (BCA). This is a stark mismatch with NHM’s eligibility criteria, which mandate a Commerce background (B.Com/M.Com) for such posts, raising profound concerns about the fiscal integrity of the hospital’s operations under her watch. Who authorized her initial appointment despite this mismatch? How did this glaring lapse go unchallenged for nine years?
The scrutiny now inevitably falls upon the local health administration, particularly the BMO Surankote, under whose nose this entire saga unfolded. The most damning questions remain unanswered: Why did the BMO remain silent for so long, and allegedly continue to sign salary slips for an employee with mismatched qualifications, and that too, without the mandatory biometric attendance in place? Was it mere negligence, or was he actively complicit in allowing an unqualified contractual employee to unofficially function as the de facto financial head, handling everything from budget approvals to payment clearances? “If the BMO wasn’t involved,” questioned a senior health official, “then why did he never intervene? Why did he validate every process—from rosters to payments—in silence?”
This incident has exposed a deep governance crisis within Poonch’s health administration, coming at a time when District Hospital Poonch is already under fire for recent maternal deaths, suggesting a potential link between administrative decay and tragic patient outcomes. The issue is no longer just about the detachment of two employees; it is about restoring public faith in a system where rules were selectively enforced and accountability was seemingly non-existent. The decisive action by NHM Director Dr. Baseer ul Haq Chaudhary is a positive and necessary first step, but true justice demands more. Without a full-scale qualification verification of all financial personnel, a forensic audit of salary disbursements, and fixing responsibility on the senior officials who enabled this decade-long breach of trust, the damage to transparency and equity in public health management will linger. The public is watching, and the question remains: is this the moment the system finally reclaims its conscience?
