Early Times Report
jammu, Mar 16: A startling revelation has come to fore, a non-gazetted employee has bypassed over hundred senior officers to become the Director of one of the wing's of Agriculture Production Department.
Sources in the Department informed Early Times that those who become gazetted officers as Agriculture Extension Officers (AEOs) (the first gazetted post in the department), have two routes of joining the department. One is from promotions of Junior Agriculture Officers (JAOs) to AEOs and other who join directly as AEO through Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC).
As per Recruitment Rules for Gazetted Service in the Department vide order number 179 of 1988 dated 2/6/1988, an officer to be appointed at Director level must have 20 years of confirmed gazetted service, or senior most among Joint Directors or a Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) or Indian Administrative Officer (IAS).
However, in total violation of the recruitment rules, the officer in question has been appointed at Director level post, despite having no such experience or being senior most among Joint Directors.
The officer in question had joined the department as non-gazetted officer Junior Agriculture Officer (JAO) in 1986 and he was to be confirmed as AEO by JKPSC in 1993 but was not promoted as AEO due to the fact that the turn of previous batches of JAO was to be come first.
However despite having no confirmation from JKPSC as AEO (gazetted service cadre), he was given promotion in the in-charge capacity as AEO. Later he was promoted as in-charge Sub-Divisional Agriculture Officer (SDAO), then in-charge capacity as District Agriculture Officer (DAO), Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO) and also as Joint Director in in-charge capacity.
Sources further said that despite being not confirmed as gazetted officer, the employee in question has been posted as Director of one wing of the Agriculture Department despite the fact that there are over one hundred officers, senior to him and were confirmed gazetted cadre officers.
"Some of the officers, who have been promoted from JAOs are senior to him, while there is an abundance of gazetted officers, who had joined the department directly as gazetted officers but despite availability of officers, this blue-eyed has been made the Director of one wing," sources added.
"The employee claimed to be from a reserved category but in the reserve category list also, there are gazetted officers available but were ignored due to reasons best known to the authorities", sources said.
The officers have appealed to the J&K administration to initiate an enquiry into the whole matter to unearth the truth and appoint deserving candidates, who are senior as well as gazetted officers. |
