60 pc posts from Secretary to clerical level vacant
Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Nov 8: Established to promote cultural activities and art in the erstwhile J&K State, the staff starved Jammu Kashmir Cultural Academy is on crutches at present with authorities at the helm of affairs taking no initiative to put the Department back on rails.
According to sources, the Academy at present faces over 60 percent shortage of staff from the post of Secretary to clerical level over a long time but the Government has not shown any interest in filling up these posts till date, with the result, the routine work in the Academy has suffered to a great extent.
Sources said over 60 percent employees of Academy including officers and ministerial staff have retired during last couple of years while some more are attaining superannuation by the end of this year but no efforts were made to fill up these posts till date for unknown reasons.
Sources said one of the main problems which the Academy is facing at present is the failure of Government to frame rules which is a long pending demand of over 90 percent of its employees. In this regard an exercise was made by the previous Mehbooba Mufti Government in 2017 during the meeting of Academy’s Central Committee which was headed by her as its chairperson, sources added.
The Rules were made with the unanimous consent of all members present and later they were submitted to Finance Department, ARI and Trainings and Law Department through Administrative Department of Culture for approval but since then their fate is not known.
These rules were not approved by the higher ups in the Civil Secretariat just to favour one or two blue eyed boys, sources added.
Sources said even the former Governor of erstwhile J&K State, Satya Pal Malik issued an order to all Government departments directing them to sort out and solve the pending issues of employees. Later Lt Governor, Girish Chander Murmu also issued the directives to the all departments in this regard but the justice still eludes the hapless employees of Academy and their file remained in cold storage till date, sources added.
Giving further details, sources said among the top posts of the Academy, the prestigious post of its Secretary is lying vacant for last two years besides two posts of Additional Secretary, one for Srinagar and another Central is lying vacant in the organization.
The additional charge for the post of Secretary is lying with the Director of Archives, Munir -ul- Islam who is also holding the additional charge of Director Libraries J&K.
Besides, Secretary and three Additional Secretaries, the two posts of Special Officer for Cultural Activities G -1 of the rank of Deputy Secretaries are also lying vacant since last one year after both the posts were given to newly carved out UT of Ladakh. In addition to it, the posts of Manager, Accounts Officer, Administrative Officer, Private Secretary, P A to Secretary are also lying vacant which is hampering the routine work in the organization.
Sources said the State of affairs has so deteriorated in the Academy that the post of Chief Editor Urdu has not been confirmed and there are no Chief Editors for Dogri, Kashmiri and Hindi after the retirement of these officials all these posts were not filled up by according promotion to senior officers in line. The post of Chief Editor, Kashmiri Encyclopedia is also lying vacant for a long time after the retirement of the officer, sources added.
Sources said that the Academy has become the victim of official apathy to such an extent that neither sanction has been accorded for the creation of new posts nor the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meeting has been called to accord promotions to deserving officials and officers with the result the employees stagnated on one post for years together. There is no provision of DPC as the new rules have not been approved, sources added.
Moreover, there are 10 posts of Cultural Officers lying vacant in the organization for long time and the existing two Cultural Officers working against the posts for last five years have not been given the grade as the rules were not approved till date.
However, Rakesh Sharma, Deputy Secretary Cultural in Administrative Department said that Governing Council of Academy was earlier guided by the rules of erstwhile State of J&K and after the disbanding of the State last year and creating of separate UTs, the entire process was stalled since then.
He said the Academy was constituted under a clause of J&K Constitution and leaving filling up of the posts aside presently the Government is facing problem of running the Academy itself. Sharma said after the new setup is properly put in place then entire issue will be sorted out.
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