*SMG reeling under funds, manpower constraints
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 9: In yet another testimony of bureaucratic slackness, a committee of senior officers has failed to come up with the new policy on entitlement of Government functionaries for the official vehicles despite the fact that it was constituted more than six months back. Besides framing the policy, this panel was also required to suggest measures to bring State Motor Garages (SMG) out of the financial and manpower crisis.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that in supersession to all the earlier orders and circulars, the Transport Department vide Government Order No. 02-TR of 2015 dated January 12, 2015 accorded sanction to the implementation of revised State Car Policy in favour of various executives as well as administrative functionaries of the State Government.
Under this policy, the Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State and dignitaries having the status of Cabinet Minister/Minister of State are entitled for Sedan, SUVs or equivalent type of vehicle having price range up to Rs 15 lakh.
Similarly, Chief Secretary, Financial Commissioner, Principal Secretaries and equivalent in grade are entitled for Sedan, SUVs or equivalent type of vehicle having price range up to Rs 12 lakh while as Commissioner/Secretaries and Secretaries to Government and equivalent grades are entitled for Sedan or equivalent type of vehicle having price range up to Rs 10 lakh.
The Deputy Commissioners/ Major Heads of the Departments, Chief Engineers, Managing Directors and equivalent are entitled for any suitable vehicle up to the price range of Rs 9 lakh while as Additional Deputy Commissioners/ Executive Engineers/Mobile Magistrates and other equivalent field officers are entitled for any suitable vehicle up to the price range of Rs 8 lakh.
The officers especially designated as Special Secretary or Additional Secretary to Government can seek suitable vehicles based on availability within their departments/State Motor Garages in a pooled manner.
“As with the passage of time new posts were created and even a number of new departments were carved out after bifurcation from the earlier ones, the demand for placement of vehicles at the disposal of officers increased considerably”, sources said, adding “but the State Motor Garages is finding it difficult to meet the requirement mainly because of manpower and funds constraints”.
“Besides this, the State Motor Garages is also being compelled to place vehicles at the disposal of certain officers on the directions of the Cabinet Ministers or senior functionaries of the Government”, sources further said.
Keeping all these aspects in mind, the General Administration Department vide Government Order No.84 dated January 29, 2016 constituted a committee headed by Financial Commiss-ioner, Hospitality and Protocol Department and comprising of Administrative Secretaries of General Administration Department and Transport Department and Director, State Motor Garages (SMG).
This committee of senior bureaucrats was assigned the task of formulation of the new State Car/Vehicle Policy. Under this policy, the entitlement of Government functionaries for official vehicles was to be re-defined after analyzing all the aspects and the difficulties being faced by the State Motor Garages, sources said.
However, despite lapse of more than six months the committee has failed to come up with the policy, sources regretted, adding “though the committee has met twice during the past six months, it has not yet finalized the policy”. Moreover, the committee was also required to suggest measures to bring State Motor Garages out of the financial and manpower crisis.
According to the sources, the State Motor Garages is facing shortage of 200 personnel including drivers, technically trained persons and ministerial staff. “The shortage is increasing with every passing year due to retirements but no step has so far been initiated to make new recruitments”, they informed.
“All this indicates that Government believes in constituting committees to deliberate upon various issues but it never tries to ensure that such panels accomplish the assigned task in a time bound manner”, sources said.
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