Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 6: Taking serious note of the growing tendency of escapism among the District Officers holding additional charge, Chief Secretary, Mohd Iqbal Khandey, has directed all the District Development Commissioners (DDCs) to fix days for rotational duties of such officers so that the areas, whose additional charge has been given to them, don’t suffer because of their attitude of avoidance. Moreover, the Chief Secretary has sought details regarding vacancies in various departments at the district level in order to accelerate the process of filling up the positions.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that during his recent visit to majority of the districts of Jammu province, the Chief Secretary came to know from the District Development Commissioners that majority of the District Officers holding additional charge of the adjoining districts have not been performing the added responsibility as a result of which several issues of common masses and hurdles in the activities of their respective departments were remaining unresolved.
Mr Khandey was surprised to know that in some of the districts, which were created in 2007, many posts of District Officers were vacant during the past quite some time due to one or the other reason, while as there was acute dearth of the field staff in various departments, which are otherwise directly associated with the common masses, sources said, adding the Chief Secretary also came to know that dual control problem particularly with regard to the departments of Public Health Engineering, Power Development and Irrigation and Flood Control continued to persist in the districts created five years ago as jurisdictions of the divisions of these departments have not been redefined till date.
Citing an example of vacancies in the newly created districts, sources said that 13 District Officers posted in Udhampur have been holding additional charge at Reasi for the past quite long time. These 13 District Officers include Superintending Engineers of Public Works Department, Power Development Department, Hydraulic and Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO).
Moreover, Reasi district doesn’t have Additional District Development Commissioner (ADDC), Chief Education Officer (CEO), District Social Welfare Officer (DSWO), General Manager District Industries Centre, Child Development and Project Officer (CDPO) and District Statistics and Evaluation Officer (DSEO).
Similarly, five posts of District Officers have been lying vacant in Poonch, four in Samba, 6 in Kathua and 9 in Ramban.
In order to ensure that District Officers holding additional charge of posts in adjoining districts perform their added responsibilities up to the satisfaction, the Chief Secretary has directed the DDCs to fix two days in a week for such officers to perform duties in the areas of additional responsibility and one day for field visit. “The salaries of these officers will be released after proper verification from the DDCs of another district that they (officers) handled the additional responsibilities”, sources said.
“As far as dual control problem in the newly created districts vis-à-vis engineering departments, the Chief Secretary has directed the DDCs of these districts and the erstwhile districts to have proper coordination to ensure rotational duties of officers of such departments till the jurisdiction of their divisions is re-defined, which is also a lengthy process”, sources said.
About the vacancies of District Officers, sources said that Chief Secretary has asked the DDCs of such districts to furnish the details within shortest possible time so that process of filling up the same could be expedited. As far as field staff of various departments in the districts is concerned, Mr Khandey has issued clear directions to the Directors and Chief Engineers to immediately ensure adequate manpower.
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