Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 5: The Government has issued directions for reconstruction and rebuilding of service records of the Government officers and officials, which has been destroyed in the recent heavy floods in Srinagar especially in Civil Secretariat, which was also hit by the floods and had to be closed for several days.
An official circular issued by the General Administration Department (GAD) said in case of damage caused to service records of the officers/officials, which has been damaged or destroyed, a photocopy of the service book, duly attested from time to time, if available with the employees in terms of Article 268 (A) of J&K CSR and subject to conditions contained therein, can be made basis for preparation of duplicate service book.
However, it said, the entries particularly with reference to date of birth, qualification, date of appointment etc should be cross checked from the certificates and other records including SLI policies that may be available with official, Government, SSB/PSC or any other document that can be considered as authentic.
“The employees invariable maintain records of various orders issued by the Departments including transfers and postings or promotions etc. These records should be obtained from the employees for purposes of recording various entries after cross checking with other available information,” the order said.
It added that in case of photocopies of the service book are not available, necessary records may be reconstructed on the basis of original certificates and information on the basis of source(s) mentioned in the order. Some service details may be available with the concerned Administrative Department as well. The information should be cross checked, as far as possible, before recording entries in the service book. The pay bills submitted to the treasuries from time to time and the budget proposals submitted to the Finance Department can also serve as a guiding principle.
“The information displayed on the official website of the GAD from time to time can also prove helpful in the process. The Drawing and Disbursing officers should record a certificate that no punishment has been imposed upon the concerned officials, whose service record has to be re-constructed. The details of prosecution sanctioned against employees of the Departments can be obtained from GAD (Vigilance) or Vigilance Organisation,” the GAD circular read.
It said the Administrative Departments/Competent Authority should verify details of the employees, who were otherwise due to retire during 2013 to 2015 in order to avoid possibility of any such employee trying to take benefit of the damages/loss caused to the service records and tamper with records pertaining to date of birth with a view to continuing in service beyond normal date of superannuation.
The circular said in due course of time, the Departments should have date of birth certificates of affected employees verified from the Board of School Education or University. It added that the Department should obtain an affidavit from the employees to the effect that the documents furnished by them are genuine.
In case of other records damaged/destroyed in the floods, the GAD circular said the list of destroyed records should be prepared and digitized.
“The departmental committees may be constituted for bifurcating the records into `very old, old and current’ categories and make recommendations for weeding out of very old records on case-to-case basis and such other old records, which might not be relevant now. It would, however, be left open to the committees to consider, which record is to be weeded out depending upon the actual requirement of such records in the concerned departments,” the order read.
It said the files, which are important like the Government order, SRO registers, Acts, Notifications, Circulars, Pay Acquaintance Rolls, Cash Books, Drawal Registers and Stock Registers etc and considered to be Master Documents/Files should be retained by the Department.
The current files damaged should be preserved and process initiated for re-construction and re-building of such files based on whatever information is preserved in the damaged files.
The Government order has asked the Heads of the Departments to furnish a list of the damaged records or completely destroyed records to the Administrative Secretaries. The HoDs have been asked to maintain details in respect of their subordinate officers. The list of damaged and destroyed records will also be put in public domain, as far as possible, it said.
“In view of computerized records available with the GP Fund Cell of the Civil Secretariat, it can consider issuance of GP Fund schedules for 2013-14 afresh to all the Secretariat employees,” the order said and advised the general public to apprise the Departments about their current cases pending in the Departments, if any, and provide information available with them, which can be examined and utilized in rebuilding or supplementing the damaged files.
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