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| Will the government please state? | | Retired OSDs, Private Secretaries ruling the roost | | Bashir Assad
Jammu, Mar 04: In gross violation of service rules and laws, the ministers in Jammu and Kashmir have started a phenomenon of appointing retired officials as Officers on Special Duty (OSD's) and private secretaries in their offices which according to sources has culminated into an unholy nexus facilitating corruption and malpractices in the administration. In spite of the fact that these ministers have the private secretaries in their offices, yet they put retired officers in addition to the staff as OSD's in their offices. It is interesting to see that these OSD's are holding chambers which special secretaries/ additional secretaries are entitled to along with the government vehicles, whereas the in-service special/additional secretaries do not have the proper accommodation in the civil secretariat.
Normally OSD's are placed in the departments which are technical in nature and are particularly taken from the engineering background. However, there are OSD's who do not have any technical background and have been appointed in relaxation of rules in their initial appointment and have been rising in service through backdoors. These OSD's have such a clout that they are still persisting even after their retirement for the last two to three years with the support of their old bosses who have been instrumental in extending them the benefits right from their inception in the service. There are at least two OSD's whose 3rd term of extension has expired on 29th February to stay in their offices without any order.
Whereas the Estates department is least bothered about providing office accommodation to the in-service officers, the OSD's working on the 2nd or 3rd extension are accommodated at par with the administrative heads in the civil secretariat and on the other hand in-service officers are putting in private accommodations as the Estates department is deficient in accommodating them.
Coming to the appointment of private secretaries; there is a separate cadre of private secretaries for ministers and commissioners and a minister can take in-service officer as private secretary, yet they are clinging to the retired bandwagon of private secretaries for the obvious reasons.
Sources said that this lot of private secretaries have the reach to the upper echelons in the administration and sometimes it is the bureaucrats who recommend these private secretaries to the minister, thereby creating a nexus of bureaucrats and ministers through these private secretaries.
To quote an instance Sri Bitaram has been private secretary with ex- health minister Suman Lata Bhagat who has a case in Accountability Commission pertaining to the selection of ANM's in the two training AMT schools in Srinagar and Jammu and was unceremoniously dropped from the cabinet by Gh. Nabi Azad on his becoming Chief Minister. Bitaram is carrying the day with the incumbent Health Minister.
Second such example can be cited that of Sri Manohar Lal who has been private secretary after his retirement with three ministers viz Prem Sagar Aziz (the then MoS Finance ) and presently Sri Manoha Llal Sharma MoS co-operatives. In case of Shri S.K. Arora, he started his private secretary -ship with Ali Mohammad Sagar as Works minister in 1990's and is presently with Taj Mohiuddin Minister for PHE and Irrigation. Arora has retired some 5 years before and is continuing to make the hay while sun shines.
So the institution of retired private secretaries has gained strength with the patronage of higher ups and ministers with in-service private secretaries being ignored and given very insignificant position.
Coming to the Chief Minister's secretariat; one Sri Rajnath has been getting regular extensions by pleasing his bosses in Chief Minister's secretariat and is holding on to the post with no chance of his being relieved from the office. Rajnath has retired three years back as cashier in Chief Minister's office.
There are many instances to quote as the institution of retired private secretaries and OSD's is expanding like anything and so the grip of bureaucrats on the personal sections of ministers immaterial of the fact that some of the ministers are considered iron men in running their departments.What explanation can be offered to the menace which is taking a toll on the talent and potential of in-service people and after all what can be the reason behind allowing the OSD's to stay in offices even after their 2nd or 3rd extension has already expired. Will the government please state?. |
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