Acute deficit between eligible
feeding cadre, requirement
Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Oct 7: Contrary to tall claims of the Government with regard to strengthening Panchayati Raj system in Jammu and Kashmir, the Department of Rural Development and Panchayti Raj in the State continues to run its own affairs on adhoc arrangements owing to acute shortage of eligible officers.
Due to the deficit between the eligible feeding cadre and requirement of 50 percent departmental Block Development Officers (BDOs), many Matriculates and fraudulent Graduates are looking after the charge of BDOs across the State in violation of norms, official sources told the Excelsior.
As SRO-178 does not provide sufficient number of Inspector Panchayats having Graduation and above qualification to feed the SRO-285, maximum number of the posts of BDO under 50 percent departmental quota, either remain unfilled or assigned to ineligible persons in the capacity of `Lookafter BDOs’.
Despite recent approval by the State Administrative Council to increase the number of posts of Panchayat Inspectors, bottlenecks in between Non-Gazetted Service Rules (SRO-178) and Gazetted Service Rules (SRO-285) lead to insufficient number of Inspector Panchayats having Graduation and above qualification to feed 50 percent departmental quota of BDOs, sources explained.
Even as there are sufficient number of Village Level Workers and Inspector Panchayats with Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Development, Master in Rural Development and PhD Rural Development, the Government is delaying incorporation of higher professional qualification in Service Rules (SRO-178 of 2007) for promotion to higher next rank on the analogy of already approved quota of VLWs having Graduation and PG Diploma in Rural Development.
Pertinent to mention that in the Department of Rural Development and Panchayti Raj, there are 4480 posts of VLWs/MPWs, 102 of Panchayat Inspector (Grade-II) and 41 posts of Panchayat Inspectors (Grade-I). The State Administrative Council recently increased the number of posts of Panchayat Inspectors (Grade-I) to 141 and Panchayat Inspectors (Grade-II) to 179.
There is no direct recruitment to the posts of Panchayat Inspector and the VLWs/MPWs are promoted to these posts under SRO-178 of 2007, according to which 75 percent posts are filled from General seniority (76 posts earlier and 134 now after recent increase), 20 percent with Graduation (21 earlier and 36 now) and five percent with PG Diploma in Rural Development (5 earlier and 9). On the same analogy, 31 General seniority and 10 of Graduation plus PGDRD are promoted as Panchayat Inspector, Grade-I. After recent increase by SAC, the number of Panchayat Inspector, Grade II, promoted as Panchayat Inspector, Grade I, will be 106 of General seniority and 35 of Graduation plus PGDRD.
As per SRO 285 of 2003, the posts of BDO are to be filled 50 percent from Combined Services (KAS cadre) and 50 percent from the departmental quota. Total number of positions of BDO is 346 and qualification for the post is Graduation.
Therefore, for the 50 percent departmental quota of BDOs (173 posts), only 10 Panchayat Inspector, Grade -I were available earlier and even after recent increase in the posts of PI Grade I, this number is 35, which means still a shortage of 136 Graduate PI, Grade I.
This deficit between the eligible feeding cadre and the requirement has led to the situation in the department where many Matriculates and fraudulent Graduates from non-recognized universities are looking after the charge of BDOs in violation of SRO-285.
To remove this bottleneck, the Administrative Departm-ent had forwarded the proposal for incorporation of MARD and PhD (RD) and enhancement of quota of PGDRD/MARD/PhD (RD) to the ARI & Training in the year 2012-13, which was further approved by all the concerned Administrative Departments on 13-11-2013.
The proposal was finally vetted by the Law Department, which enhanced the promotion quota to 60 from General seniority of VLWs/MPWs, 20 percent from Graduate VLWs/MPWs and 20 percent from VLWs/MPWs having Ph D (RD)/MARD/PGDRD. In addition to this the minimum qualification for the recruitment to the post of VLW was also approved as Graduation, instead of 10 plus 2.
However, this amended schedule of SRO-178, already stands approved by ARI, GAD, Finance and Law Departments, has been kept on hold for the last five years by the officials at helm of affairs in Administrative Department of RDD& PR allegedly to benefit the Undergraduate and fake Graduate BDOs.
Further, there has been no DPC of VLWs of Jammu Province since 2008 again to benefit these `Lookafter BDOs’.
If there is quota of 20 percent reserved for Graduate and 5 percent for PGDRD, then it is a million dollars question that why there is no quota for professional qualifications of MA (RD) and Ph D (RD), which already stands recommend by the department itself and approved by competent departments? As if it is done then there will be no dearth of eligible feeding cadre and the department would be able to get qualified officers for running its affairs.
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