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| VRS: 1,000 PHE employees on way out | | |
Sant Kumar Sharma
SRINAGAR, August 29: The carrot and stick policy being followed by the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department seems to have started wielding results. Over a thousand employees have already submitted applications to benefit from a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS).
According to the minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Mr Taj Mohiuddin, employees are submitting applications in hordes to opt for voluntary retirement. These applications have been received from all the districts of the state, he added.
The employees applying for VRS are trying to make use of an amnesty being offered by the ministry presently. This amnesty is in operation for a limited period of three months only.
The VRS was the brainchild of Mr Mohiuddin who reviewed the performance of departments under his command some time ago. Later, he decided that the departments needed a revamp and started in right earnest.
During the review, senior officials found out that thousands of employees had never been transferred even once during their entire career. This sometimes meant no transfer or posting for three decades or more.
Also, exact records regarding the dates of birth for all the employees were not available at the level of the sub-division, division or even in the offices of the chief engineers. It was then decided that the employees would be asked to produce relevant documents for scrutiny.
Initially, the unions leading the employees resist the minister’s attempts to rationalize staff position. Sanity prevailed later when the employees were given the choice to either quit or behave.
The employees going home on voluntary retirement under the amnesty scheme will get full pension. The records of thousands of others, under scanner for irregularities, will be scrutinized and the guilty punished.
In Rajouri district alone, at least 40 PHE employees have applied for VRS. The vacancies created in this manner will pave the way for fresh recruitment of young educated youth, PDP legislator from Darhal Zulfikar Choudhary said.
Legislators have been asked by the minister to help revamp the department to improve efficiency, as also accountability.
Mr Mohiuddin said that due to model code of conduct being in force till May due to parliamentary elections, he did not get much time to speed up the work. However, in the days to come, he promised to step on the accelerator of reforms.
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