Verification of employees’ service record at advanced stage
Funds to be utilized for giving benefits to manpower
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 22: The much-needed exercise to liquidate assets of Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation (JAKFED) will be over within next few months as valuation of majority of the properties has already been conducted. This will facilitate the Cooperatives Department to provide benefits to the already retired employees and offer Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to other employees.
The decision to wind up the loss-making JAKFED was taken by the State Administrative Council (SAC) headed by the then Governor of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik in the month of June 2019 and it was announced that the process will be concluded by the Registrar, Cooperative Societies in terms of Section 74 of the Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Society Act, 1989 by August 31, 2019.
The SAC also directed the Cooperatives Department to constitute a committee which will coordinate the winding up of JAKFED and come up with a detailed winding up plan including an appropriate VRS for employees of the Federation.
“All the movable/immovable assets of JAKFED shall be taken over by the Government and financial commitments, if any, shall be met by the Cooperatives Department through sale of these assets and the Government shall not bear any financial liability whatsoever on this account”, the SAC had made it clear.
However, earlier there was delay in the appointment of liquidators on the part of the Finance Department and thereafter there was no necessary cooperation from the then Registrar Cooperatives as a result of which no progress could be made towards implementing the decision of the SAC, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
After inordinate delay, the liquidators submitted the report, which was, however, found not up to the mark and accordingly the entire exercise again got delayed much to the disappointment of employees of JAKFED, whose fate is still hanging in balance, sources further said, adding “during the past few months, the Cooperatives Department has made significant progress by assigning the task to certain officers of the department with the direction to submit reports after regular intervals”.
“There are 11 assets of JAKFED and valuation of eight has already been conducted and Government departments have been approached for taking over the same by paying the cost as per the Government approved rates”, they informed, adding “there is title dispute in respect of two assets while as record pertaining to another asset is untraceable”.
They disclosed that entire exercise to liquidate the assets of the JAKFED will be taken to the logical conclusion within next few months and the funds to be generated by this exercise will be utilized to clear the liabilities of JAKFED. Moreover, these funds will be utilized to provide retirement benefits to those employees of the Federation who have already attained superannuation and are waiting for justice since 2013.
“The funds will also be utilized to offer Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to other employees strictly as per the decision of the State Administrative Council”, sources said, adding “a detailed exercise is also going on in the Cooperatives Department for verification/authentication of service records of the employees of erstwhile JAKFED”.
This step has been imperative as record of the employees is missing mainly because no serious attention was paid by all those who remained head of the Federation during all these years towards maintenance of files. “More than one lakh entries are required to be authenticated in order to work out exact picture about the number of genuine employees”, sources informed.
“Besides offering Voluntary Retirement Scheme, the Cooperative Department is also mulling to get the employees of JAKFED adjusted in other departments but final decision in this regard will be taken only after completion of verification of service records and complete liquidation of assets”, sources said.
It is pertinent to mention here that a committee of four officers of the Cooperatives Department is conducting verification/authentication of service records under the close supervision of Secretary to the Government, Cooperatives Department Yasha Mudgal.
The JAKFED was conducting major activities like procurement and distribution of fertilizer, building material, domestic gas etc. Initially a profit earning organization, Federation could not maintain its tempo on account of malpractices which were probed by Pillai Committee and thereafter by the Joint House Committee of erstwhile Legislative Council.
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