- Serious view taken of non-adherence to bye-laws, MoA
- Directive to Prabhari Officers on network connectivity issues
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Oct 3: The concerned Administrative Secretaries will be held responsible for delay in holding Governing Body meetings of the Autonomous Bodies, Corporations and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir as Government has taken serious note of non-adherence to the bye-laws and Memorandum of Association (MoA).
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that in a high-level meeting convened recently, Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta held deliberations on the implementation of bye-laws and Memorandum of Association of all the Autonomous Bodies, Corporations and Public Sector Undertakings with the Administrative Secretaries of the departments which have jurisdiction over these bodies.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary noticed non-adherence to the bye-laws and Memorandum of Association by majority of the Autonomous Bodies, Corporations and Public Sector Undertakings and accordingly he conveyed concern to the concerned Administrative Secretaries.
It was observed that though the Chief Secretary is the Chairperson of a number of Governing Bodies of Autonomous Bodies, Corporations and Public Sector Undertakings yet it was purely the duties of the concerned Administrative Secretaries and heads of these bodies to ensure that meetings of the Governing Bodies are convened after regular intervals to hold deliberations on the important issues and financial matters.
“The Administrative Secretaries are expected to ensure that the meetings of these bodies are held at intervals as mandated in the relevant bye-laws and Memorandum of Association by getting the agenda prepared through the heads of these bodies”, sources said quoting the directions of the Chief Secretary, adding “it has been made clear by the Chief Secretary that any default on this account will be the responsibility of the concerned Administrative Secretary”.
The Chief Secretary has further directed that meetings of all bodies/committees should be ensured by the concerned departments without fail, sources informed, adding “because of non-adherence to the bye-laws and Memorandum of Association several important issues of Autonomous Bodies, Corporations and Public Sector Undertakings remain unresolved for prolonged time thereby hampering their functioning”.
It is pertinent to mention here that Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has a number of times pointed out delay in convening mandatory meetings of the Governing Bodies of the Autonomous Bodies, Corporations and Public Sector Undertakings and accordingly made several recommendations to the concerned departments.
The Memorandum of Association is the Constitution of the company prepared at the time of registration and periodically updated to incorporate changes. It is a legal document that defines the very foundation of the company and contains all the fundamental details about the establishment, the defined scope of business activities and objectives, extent of authority and legal rights of the company.
Similarly, bye-laws contain information on the Board of Directors as it is the governing body of the organization, including its duties and powers. The information specifies things like the number of years a member can stay on the board and the number of members needed to form a quorum in a meeting etc. As such Memorandum of Association and bye-laws govern the functioning of the Autonomous Bodies, Corporations and Public Sector Undertakings.
Meanwhile, Chief Secretary has directed all the Prabhari Officers to provide details of areas with network connectivity issues in their respective Panchayats.
“The Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has already initiated a number of steps to make the administration transparent and corruption free by switching over to e-governance and on the instructions of Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, the administration has started exercise to roll out e-governance at the grass-roots level by providing internet connectivity to Gram Panchayats under the Bharat Broadband Scheme”, sources said.
They further said, “the Government wants to resolve the issues, if any, by seeking direct feed back from the Prabhari Officers (Administrative Secretaries), who have been assigned different districts of the Union Territory for monitoring their developmental activities”.