*SLSA Act being amended to bring at par with Central law
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 17: State Cabinet, which is meeting under the chairmanship of Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed at Civil Secretariat, Srinagar tomorrow, is going to order reshuffle at the top level in the civil administration in view of repatriation of some senior officers from the Central deputation and promotion of 16 IAS officers. Moreover, the Cabinet would conduct much-awaited cadre review of IAS and give nod to carry out amendment in the Jammu and Kashmir State Legal Services Authority (SLSA) Act to bring it at par with the Central law.
Authoritative sources told EXCELSIOR that Cabinet would order adjustment of three senior IAS officers namely Dheeraj Gupta, Navin Choudhary and R K Goyal, who have recently been repatriated from the Central deputation on the personal intervention of Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
The State Government had sought repatriation of five IAS officers of the J&K Cadre, who were on Central deputation so that their services could be utilized in the State. However, the Centre cleared deputation of three officers.
Dheeraj Gupta has been repatriated on the completion of Central deputation while as Navin Choudhary and R K Goyal had their enough time left for completion of deputation. But Chief Minister wanted them to make use of their administrative experience for the betterment of Jammu and Kashmir, sources said while disclosing that these three officers are likely to get significant postings in tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting to be held at 3 pm.
According to the sources, Cabinet is also likely to order transfers and postings of some of the 16 IAS officers, who were promoted in the earlier meeting held at Jammu on April 19.
Among these, 10 IAS officers of 2002 batch namely Saurabh Bhagat, Mohammad Yousuf Dar, Hemant Kumar Sharma, Hilal Ahmed Parray, Kifayat Hussain Rizvi, Dilshad Khan, Basharat Saleem, Tsering Angchok, Shafiq Ahmed Raina and Sajad Ahmad Khan were promoted to the Selection Grade of IAS with effect from January 1, 2015 while as six officers of 2010 and 2011 batch were promoted to the Senior Time Scale of IAS.
Sources informed that Cabinet would also conduct cadre review of IAS so as to meet the current demand of IAS officers in the State. “The IAS cadre review is required to be conducted after regular intervals so as to work out the requirement of the State and refer the vacancies following such review to the Union Public Service Commission for meeting the demand of IAS officers”, they said.
“The cadre review is imperative in the light of the fact that J&K is facing the shortage of IAS officers and decision on cadre review would then be communicated to the Union Ministry of Personnel along with the justification behind the same and subsequently the requirement would be projected before the UPSC”, sources further said.
They disclosed that Cabinet would also accord promotion in favour of two IPS officers and subsequent adjustments in the Police Department. “This was also on agenda in the last Cabinet meeting but the same could not be taken up because of paucity of time”, sources added.
The Cabinet would also give concurrence to the appointment of eight members to the State Legislative Council, sources said. As per the rules, this was imperative when eight persons were nominated to the Upper House in the first week of April but the same could not be done prompting the Governor N N Vohra to point out this ‘mistake’ on the part of the Government and the same would be rectified by the Cabinet tomorrow.
Sources said that Cabinet would also consider amendment in the Jammu and Kashmir State Legal Services Act in order to bring it at par with the Central law.
“As per the Central law, Member Secretary of the State Legal Services Authority should be a Judicial Officer but in Jammu and Kashmir State Legal Services Act, the post has been given to the Law Secretary”, sources said, adding “the recommendations vis-à-vis appointing Judicial Officer as Member Secretary of the State Legal Services Authority were made during the Chief Justices and Chief Ministers Conference held in the year 2013 and thereafter by the Division Bench of State High Court in a Public Interest Litigation titled Rufi Khan Versus State of J&K”.
It is pertinent to mention here that only J&K and two North East States have not brought the State Legal Services Authority Act at par with the Central law till date.
The Cabinet would also accord approval to the creation of posts in the Government Medical Colleges of Jammu and Srinagar in order to overcome the shortage of manpower, which is creating hurdles in providing timely and proper medicare to the patients.
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