Directors, JDs, other officers not regularised for over 4 decades
Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, June 7: Menace of adhocism has not spared any Government Department in J&K and Floriculture is no exception. It may sound incredible but is a fact that the Department has failed to regularise the senior officers including Directors, Joint Directors and Deputy Directors for last over four decades out of whom some have even passed away over these years.
According to sources, over two dozen of senior officers of the Department have since retired from the Government services which included four directors but their services were not regularized in the higher grades till date for the unknown reasons. Their files are piling up in Civil Secretariat for decades together but to no avail.
It is pity that for last 48 years no Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meetings were held in the Department to clear the pending regularisation and promotions cases of senior officers, sources said adding that this led to total adhocism in the Department which is continuously being run on crutches as neither the previous Governments nor the present one have shown any interest in putting the Department back on the rails.
Sources said 26 officers including four former Directors of the Department, three Joint Directors, three Deputy Directors and rest District Officers have attained the superannuation but were not given the grades of the posts on which they attained superannuation over the years. These officers are since running from pillar to post for justice but to no avail, sources added.
Sources said what can be more callousness of the successive J&K Governments towards these officers as among them some of the officers even died over the years but they did not get the benefit of the grade in their life time and all their hopes dashed to the ground.
An officer who retired on the rank of Director in the Department gets half of the of the pension what otherwise was due to him and same is the case with other retired officers including Joint Directors, Directors, Deputy Directors and District Officers, sources said, adding a retired Director who otherwise was entitled to the monthly pension of Rs 80,000 if granted regularisation on the post to which he was promoted and on which he attained superannuation is drawing Rs 42,000 as pension and there is a difference of Rs 38000 which is a grave injustice with such officers.
Sources said that these officers were promoted vide Government order to the higher posts through a due process of law and rules. Their names were even cleared by the Public Service Commission (PSC), Vigilance Organisation and they were promoted on the basis of their APR and seniority but still they don’t know why they were not given the grades to which they were entitled to.
Terming depriving of Floriculture officers as an established policy by the successive Governments, sources said no one at the helm of affairs in last over four decades has bothered to settle the issue and their files are piling up in the Civil Secretariat.
Sources said debarring these officers of pay scale of the posts they were holding up to their retirement after grant of promotions was arbitrary, illegal, unconstitutional and wrong since the officers have actually performed and discharged the duties and were entitled for the grade otherwise the fruit of promotion don’t reach to an employee who has reasonable expectations of the same and was holding the post of great responsibility for betterment of the Department.
The aggrieved officers have also made an appeal to present dispensation in the UT and have expressed the hope that their case will be settled on the same lines as was done in case of regularization of senior lecturers recently. In this regard, they have also petitioned before Lt Governor, Manoj Sinha seeking his immediate intervention in the matter.
Justifying their case, Commissioner Secretary, Floriculture, Fayaz Ahemd Sheikh told Excelsior that the promotions have not been regularised in the Department for last 48 years. He said only three officers were promoted in 2018 and the cases of all others are pending for decades.
He said that his office is on the job now and he has convened three meetings since he took over as Commissioner Secretary and their cases are being scrutinized by collecting the records in this regard. “We will soon convene DPC to clear these cases”, he added.
He said that these officers were promoted as Incharge Directors, Joint Directors and Deputy Directors in their own pay and grade and confirmation was not given by Public Service Commission (PSC). However, this time Department will clear all the pending cases, he added.
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