Early Times Report
Jammu, Nov 29: The Election Commission has been conducting Panchayat elections in the state, but it seems unaware about the situation in Jammu province where 35 out of 155 blocks of Rural Development Department are headless while 32 are manned by non-feeding cadre employees.
The Village Level Workers (VLWs) and Multiple Purpose Workers (MPWs) of Jammu province have been facing open discrimination as no DPC has been conducted by department in Jammu province for the last over one decade. But in Kashmir province DPC has been conducted on regular intervals.
According to statistics available with Early Times, the RDD block is manned by Block Development Officer (BDO), who is also the Nodal officer to conduct Panchayat elections in their respective block and also happened to be the Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) of the concerned blocks for conducting the Panchayat elections.
Only in Jammu Province as per the information available there are 155 posts of BDOs out of which 35 are vacant, whereas SRO-285 of 2003 says that these posts are to be filled-up 50% by junior KAS officers and 50% by graduate officials from departmental feeding cadre, that is, Inspector Panchayats/ Mukhey Sewaikas/Lady Project Officers, sources said.
They said irony is that at present 61 out of 77 posts of BDOs are manned by junior KAS officers and only 31 posts out of 78 are manned by Graduate Inspector Panchayats. "Whereas, 29 posts have been illegally filled up by Non-feeding Cadre officials i.e Audio Visual Operators/Photographers, Section Officers, APOs (Agriculture), Under Graduate Inspector Panchayats and VLWs who are otherwise not eligible to become Block Development Officers as per existing SRO-285 of 2003, despite the fact, that more than 20 Graduate Inspector Panchayats and over 200 Graduate VLWs/MPWs with vast experience have denied their due promotions deliberately by concerned authorities at the helm of affairs since last 10 years as their DPC had not been conduction till now", sources revealed.
They further said that the DPC of VLWs/MPWs cadre of Kashmir province is being conducted regularly after every six months. However, in Kashmir province also more than 50% BDOs are also from under-graduate/ non-feeding cadre.
It is a big question on the part of administration of RDD that important posts of BDOs, who are the Nodal Officers as well as AEROs in ongoing Panchayat elections, are lying headless inspite of the fact that more than 20 Graduates Inspector Panchayats and over 200 Graduate VLWs/MPWs with vast field experience are available in the department in Jammu division, sources said.
They further said neither the DPC of VLWs/MPWs is held since last over a decade nor the department of RDD & PR issued any amended schedule of SRO-178 of 2007 which have already been vetted by ARI&T, GAD, Finance and Law Departments in 2016 and file is lying in the administrative department of RDD&PR for issuance of amended schedules.
"But at the behest of non-feeding cadre officials, who had illegally encroached upon the posts of BDOs, RDD officials are hesitating to issue the amended scheduled just to facilitate these incumbents", sources alleged.
It is pertinent to mention here that as per SRO-285 of 2003 demands 50% departmental BDOs with minimum qualification of graduate degree among the department feeding cadres, whereas, the existing SRO-178 of 2007 supplies only 20% graduate and 5% PGDRD VLWs/MPWs and due to the contradiction between both the SROs (178 & 285) of same department, officials of non- feeding cadre are occupying the posts of BDOs illegally whereas deserving officials are suffering badly.
"If RDD issues the already amended scheduled of SRO 178 in which quota of graduate and post graduate VLWs/MPWs is enhanced from existing 25% to 50% whole the root cause of deficit departmental feeding cadre can be resolved permanently", sources said.
Director RDD Rehana Batool said that due to shortage of eligible staff the posts of BDOs were lying vacant. On the question of DPC, Batool said that due to some court cases and some other issues, DPC was not conducted for the last many years. She assured that at the Secretary level, initiatives have been taken and they have been going to conduct the DPC shortly, after which the problem would be solved. |
