I t sounds hard to be believed that a policy of patchwork oran ad hoc approach to issues pertaining to sensitive personnel matters is just a routine in Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Department. Instances of many personnel in officers cadre having joined 30 years ago have retired on the same post. In other words, letting the element of stagnancy creep into the process of regular promotions with consequences of not making the the best of the concerned officers in terms of their output and performance , has been going on in the Cooperative department with utter impromptu style. The Department, thus, has been deprived of projecting itself as having due regard for seniority , merit and satisfactory performance to reward the deserving with the promotion for category wise posts. Right of the employees to be placed at the elevated positions as per eligibility is the phenomenon of the usual service conditions in any institution hence Cooperative Department cannot be an exception. There is a mechanism, well defined and a conventional one, known as Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) dealing with and deciding about all cases of regular promotions guided by the instructions as issued from time to time by the Governmentand the concerned office, department etc is supposed to place before the DPC all details and relevant information to enable the DPC proceed ahead by following a uniform standard for assessing all the eligible persons for promotions. These Committees are expected to meet occasionally subject to certain requirements but at least once in a year to assess about the assigned role of making recommendations for promotion of eligible employees to higher pay scales and responsibilities.However, it is reported that the said Committee never met during the last 15 years. Since it did not meet , its agenda – that of the promotions and related issues, slipped into utter oblivion. It is not that there are not specific directions from the Lieutenant Governor’s Administration to all Administrative Secretaries in respect of holding meetings of DPCs regularly so that the cycle of promotions did not get stuck up, but the same were either given no importance by the senior officers in J&K Cooperative Department or thought it prudent to let things continue without this factor otherwise connected to the career prospects of scaling the stairs of sharing added responsibilities and duties as a result of promotion otherwise due on account of the eligibility of seniority, merit and satisfactory ratings in APRs. In fact, there should have been the system of advising the employees concerned in each Department one’s seniority number which when kept revised every year would create the need of a mechanism to conduct the exercise of internal departmental promotions as a result of the recommendations of DPCs meant for the said purpose. What is further revealed , as a result of the messy situation in Cooperative Department , that several officers held the post of Assistant Registrar in the Gazetted category in the substantive capacity from April 1999 and a few even from 1990 while their seniority was finalised twice during 2003 and 2005in the category of Assistant Registrar – Gazetted category. Some colleagues figuring ahead of them in the list were inducted into the KAS cadre on the clearance / promotion as Deputy Registrars by the DPC/ PSC. That all indicating the absence of a semblance in this area of sensitivity which curiously perhaps no audit or inspection reports have revealed either which could have been otherwise attended to accordingly citing reasons of deliberate goofing. However, certain glaring discrepancies and patch work approach like measures adopted have surfaced like from out of the seniority lists of 2003 and 2005 , as many as 18 Assistant Registrars were placed as “Incharge” Deputy Registrars/District Officers in “own pay and grade” but never regularised or confirmed till date. The paradox, however, is that all of them stand retired as Assistant Registrars. On the other hand, ancillary facilities as a consequence of the requisite recommendations of the DPCs, Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission functioning with full staff strength could offer its services in matters of promotions at the Gazetted levels provided the said exercise would have been done by the DPCs. A full inquiry into such a casual approach in the Cooperative Department playing with the career of the employees , their resultant frustration and possibly loss of interest to give better output and most of the aggrieved ones getting retired , must be instituted to set the rut right.
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