*Yet to frame service rules
Govind Sharma
JAMMU, Mar 5: The Government has failed to remove the pay anomalies of hundreds of Non-Gazetted employees of five newly established Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) in Jammu and Kashmir at par with the GMC Jammu/Srinagar, the reason being non-existence of service rules for these employees.
The aggrieved employees told EXCELSIOR that the then Cabinet vide its Order Number 175/11/2017 dated 3rd October 2017, accorded sanction to the creation of 3375 posts for the establishment of five new GMCs in J&K and accordingly, Health and Medical Education Department notified the posts, 675 each for GMC Kathua, GMC Rajouri, GMC Doda, GMC Baramulla and GMC Anantnag.
They said later Government Order Number 831-HME of 2019 dated September 18, 2019 and Government Order Number 16-HME of 2019 dated November 28, 2019 were issued to work out the actual pay scales of the posts in new GMCs. “However, this exercise was not conducted well within the specified time frame after which the Government vide Order Number 892-HME dated December 2, 2020 in supersession of earlier orders, set up a committee to work out the actual pay scales issue,” they added.
As per the employees, the committee submitted its report to the Finance Department for the rectification of the pay scale in October 2021. However, the Finance Department was not convinced with the recommendations arguing that there were no recruitment rules in place for Non-Gazetted posts in the new GMCs and the necessary rectification of the pay scale cannot be carried out in the absence of the same.
The aggrieved employees stated that to facilitate early functioning of these GMCs, Government conducted the recruitment of Non-Gazetted staff in haste without framing service rules but now almost more than four years have passed but Government has yet not framed their service rules.
They alleged that due to unavailability of service rules, there is huge difference between their salaries if they compare the same with their counterparts in GMC Jammu/Srinagar though the posts are same. “The department had been dilly-dallying over fixing our pay scales at par with GMC Jammu/Srinagar for unknown reasons,” they said, adding, in the last few years, the issue has been repeatedly taken up with the higher authorities but the issue remained unsolved.
An employee posted as Storekeeper at one of the newly established GMCs said they had been kept in the level 2 pay scale instead of the level 5 or 6 while another employee posted as Vocational Counselor alleged that they are still stuck at level 4 which should ideally have been level 6 as compared to GMC Jammu and level 7 as compared to GMC Srinagar.
The aggrieved employees further told Excelsior that Medical Social Workers at the newly set up GMCs have been kept in pay level 4 whereas the same posts at GMC Srinagar and GMC Jammu are availing pay level 6 and 7, leading to a salary deficit of Rs 15,000. The employees claimed that due to the non-seriousness of the Administrative Department, employees are suffering and feared of stagnation as without service rules they will be deprived of time bound promotion.
When contacted, Additional Secretary, Health and Medical Education Department, Chand Kishore Sharma said that they are on the job and a committee has already been constituted for the purpose. He maintained that they have framed service rules for the Gazetted staff and within next three months, service rules for the Non-Gazetted staff of these new medical colleges will also be in place. “Accordingly, steps will be taken to remove pay anomalies of these employees,” Sharma added.
However, Secretary H&ME Department, Dr Syed Abid Rasheed Shah, could not be contacted on the issue.
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