Neeraj Rohmetra
JAMMU, Apr 27: The Government of India today cleared return of three senior Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officers of Jammu and Kashmir cadre from Central deputation to the State but kept a decision on two others, whose services have also been sought by the State Government, pending.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Central Government today cleared return of three IAS officers of Jammu and Kashmir cadre to the State on the request of the PDP-BJP coalition Government headed by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed. They are Dheeraj Gupta, Navin Choudhary and RK Goyal.
As reported exclusively by the Excelsior, the State Government had sought services of five IAS officers of the State cadre, who were on Central deputation. The Government wanted to utilize the services of these officers in the State. However, the Centre today cleared deputation of three officers and kept decision on two others pending.
Two IAS officers on whom a decision was awaited were Arun Kumar Mehta, Joint Secretary in Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and Atal Dulloo, Joint Secretary in Department of Rural Development Department
While Dheeraj Gupta, who was posted as Advisor to Planning Commissioner in New Delhi, had completed his Central deputation, Navin Kumar Choudhary, Joint Secretary in Ministry of Defence (MoD) and RK Goyal, Joint Secretary in Department of Electronics and Information Technology, had their enough time left for completion of deputation.
“The Centre would take a decision on return of Mehta and Dulloo later,” sources said.
Meanwhile, former Home Secretary of J&K Suresh Kumar and Umang Narula, former Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on their Central deputation to the Centre, have been posted as Joint Secretary in MoD and Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) of Indian Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) respectively.
Pritpal Singh, former Additional Chief Executive Officer of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), who has also proceeded on Central deputation, has been posted as Director Planning and International Corporation in MoD.
According to sources, all five IAS officers were reluctant to return from their Central deputation as it had been observed earlier that the State Government after recalling the officers hadn’t given them good postings. However, three of them have returned while two others were yet to come back.
Sources said in view of vast experience of the three officers, the Government should give them important assignments especially when they have cut short their Central deputation to return to the State.
It may be mentioned here that reeling under shortage of IAS officers, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had sent a fresh communication to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for sparing few officials of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, who were presently on Central deputation.
Even Governor, N N Vohra had also taken up the issue with the Central Government, when the State came under a short spell of Governor’s rule recently, after the conclusion of Assembly elections in December, last year.
Navin Kumar Choudhary (1994 batch), had served as Principal Secretary to present Governor, N N Vohra from February, 2012 to April, 2014. While on deputation earlier, he had also served as Advisor to Executive Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Washington and Director Economic Affairs, Finance Ministry.
Raj Kumar Goyal, (1990 batch), who had served as Principal Secretary to State Governor from August 4, 2009 to April 1, 2013 had also served as CEO, Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and had proceeded to Central deputation in 2013.
Dheeraj Gupta (1993 batch) went to Central deputation in the year 2006 and is presently functioning as Advisor with Planning Commission. Earlier, he had served as Joint Secretary and Director in the Departments of Personnel and General Administration. He had also served as Private Secretary to the Defence Minister from 2006 – 2011.
Other officers, who are presently on Central deputation included Madhav Lal, Secretary Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; Ashok Kumar Angurana, Secretary Panchayati Raj Ministry; K B Aggarwal, Joint Secretary in Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; Pramod Kumar Jain, Joint Secretary in Ministry of Culture, Sudhanshu Pandey, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises and , Manoj Kumar Dwivedi, who was recently empanelled as Joint Secretary.
Due to shortage of officers, several Administrative Secretaries have been given additional charge of several Departments. Principal Secretary to the Government, Planning and Development Department, B R Sharma had been given additional charge of the post of Principal Secretary, Home Department, in addition to his own duties. Besides, he has been given charge of Chief Executive Officer, Economic Reconstruction Agency.
It is pertinent to mention here that 14 IAS officers of J&K cadre including the Chief Secretary Mohammad, Iqbal Khandey would retire on attaining age of superannuation this year. They included former Chief Secretary Madhav Lal, Iqbal Khandey, Sonali Kumar, Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, Mohammad Sharif Sood, Tanveer Jehan, Shagufta Parveen, Abdul Majid Mir, Tushar Kanti Sharma, Mehraj Ahmad Kakroo, Ramesh Kumar Koul, Abdul Majid Ganai, Shafat Noor Barlas and Mohd Yousuf Dar.
Presently, J&K has sanctioned strength of 137 IAS officers and 75 are direct recruitment posts while as 62 are promotion posts.
A K Mehta (1988 cadre) is the senior most official, who went on Central deputation on January 9, this year only and prior to that was holding office of Principal Secretary, Power in the State. Earlier also, he held several posts, while being on Central deputation including CVO, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd. (DFCCIL) of Railways Ministry and Joint Secretary Ministry of Urban Affairs”, sources said.
Atal Dulloo (1989 batch), who had served as Commissioner-Secretary Tourism proceeded on Central deputation on November 19, 2013. Earlier, he had served as Commissioner-Secretary Science and Technology, Commissioner-Secretary Health and Chairman of Special Tribunal.
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