| 400 KAS posts vacant, 159 officers hold additional charges | | Adhocism in JK | | Bashir Assad
Jammu, Mar 16: Even after three and a half years of its existence, National Conference-Congress coalition Government in the State continues to encourage and operate through administrative adhocism resulting in slow but steady dilapidation of the institution of Governance.
Official records show that as many as 400 posts of KAS and district officers are lying vacant in various departments across the State which has hit the governance and its institutions badly.
What is even more interesting to note is that nearly 159 KAS and District Officers are holding the additional charges at district level and some of them are even holding the additional charges since 2003.
In written reply to a question of Choudhary Zulfkar, MLA Darhal the Government has stated that around 159 KAS and district officers have been holding the additional charge of various departments, while 400 posts of KAS and district officers are lying vacant in Jammu and Kashmir. One of the district officers (Dr. Rama Kant Sharma Dy. Director, Agriculture (Central) Directorate of Agriculture, Jammu) is holding the charge of Chief Agriculture Officer, CAD, since January 2003, while a significant number of officers are holding the additional charges for last four to five years. Though it can be argued that holding additional charges by officers since 2009 is thing of the past what sounds astounding that 68 officers at the district level have been given additional charges during 2012 while as 31 officers have been assigned the additional charges during last three months starting January 2013. In certain cases the period of holding additional charge has not been revealed suspiciously. A good number of district officers were holding additional charge since May 2009.
For instance, Chief Planning Officer Udhampur, has been holding the charge of District Statistics and Evaluation Officer, Udhampur, since September 29, 2009. Similarly, Chief Planning Officer, Ramban, has been holding the charge of District Statistics and Evaluation Officer, Ramban, since May 8, 2009.
The written reply to Zulfkar's question further States that the process of induction into the KAS, in respect of the vacancies, accrued up to January 1, 2013, has been started after necessary proposals have been received from the administrative departments. 'The exercise is expected to be completed shortly, after which all the vacancies at the level of the time scale of the KAS would be filled up. In the meantime, officers are being promoted on officiating basis which will ensure the filling up of these posts expeditiously, the reply states.
It is stated that 33 junior scale KAS officers of the 2012-I batch were undergoing practical training. After the completion of their training in July, 2013, these officers would be deployed against the vacant posts. As many as 117 more officers of the 2012-II Batch, who were presently undergoing training in IMPA, would also be deployed in the different departments after the completion of their training which would help fill the gaps.
About other vacant posts in different districts, the reply, which has come from the General Administration Department which is directly under the control of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, states the respective administrative departments have been advised to expedite the finalization of the promotion proposals of eligible officers in consultation with the PSC and DPC so that the problem relating to vacant positions is minimized considerably. |
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