Adil Lateef
SRINAGAR, Oct 8: Working of 26 Divisional offices in the State has been severely affected in Public Health Engineering (PHE) and Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) Department as posts of Executive Engineers are lying vacant despite the fact that Government has approved promotion of 18 senior most engineers.
Sources told Excelsior that Government in order to fill the vacant posts sought clearance from Vigilance Organization with regard to promotion of 30 engineers on June 19, 2017. The clearance was sought by Under Secretary to the Government, Sonam Chhosdon through a formal communiqué under number GAD (Vig)04-NOC/2017-PHE, I&FC-II along with full names and posting details of these engineers.
Subsequently, the Vigilance Organization gave clearance for the promotion of 26 engineers through a communiqué under number VO/38-06/NOC-2017-PHE, I&FC12400 on July 27, 2017. The Assistant Inspector General (Policy) Vigilance Organization, Javed Iqbal Matto in the communiqué requested complete posting details as per the General Administration Department (GAD) guidelines in respect of two engineers for further course of action. With regards to remaining two other engineers, the Vigilance said that the “report in their respect is still in process and would be communicated as soon as the same is being finalized”.
Sources said that the Government on August 17, 2017 approved the promotion of 18 senior most Assistant Executive Engineers. The promotion of remaining eight engineers was kept on hold as there were some issues related to the qualifying service. However, despite approval of promotion of 18 engineers, the posting till date has not been made due to reasons best known to the Government and the file is pending in the office of Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control.
Due to non-posting of engineers, the working in 26 Divisional Offices has been severely affected. “Due to headless Divisional Offices, the process of executing works, making new proposals and Detailed Project Reports (DRPs) has been affected to a very large extent. The Government, in absence of officers, has given additional charges for functioning but that creates chaos and overall working get affected,” the sources said.
Some of the promoted engineers who spoke to Excelsior on the condition of anonymity, accused Government of deliberately not making posting after their promotions. “All the required formalities have been completed by the Government that include clearance from Vigilance but despite all this the postings are not being made which clearly indicates something is wrong and is being done deliberately,” they claimed.
Confirming that despite promotions, the postings have not been made, Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Sham Lal Chaudhary told Excelsior: “The postings would be made this week.” The Minister, however, did not explain reasons behind delay in making postings.
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