Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 16: CIC Operators working under the Rural Development Department (RDD) of Jammu & Kashmir have made a renewed appeal to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, urging him to address their long-standing grievances related to regularization and salary enhancement.
“Despite being recruited in 2004 through a transparent merit-based process and holding advanced qualifications such as MCA, MSc IT, BE, BTech and MTech, the demands of CIC Operators have remained unresolved,” said J&K CIC Operators Association in a handout issued today.
The CIC Operators recalled that a cabinet order in 2014 had approved their regularization, yet this directive has not been implemented. “Further efforts to address the issue in 2016 led to the creation of 172 Data Entry Operator (DEO) posts under Government Order No. 320-RD&PR, aiming to bring them under the J&K Civil Services (Special Provisions) Act, 2010,” the Association said, adding, despite approvals from the Finance Department’s High-Level Empowered Committee in 2016 and 2017, implementation has faced significant delays.
The Association stated that legal opinions from the Advocate General and the Department of Law, Justice, and Parliamentary Affairs have strongly supported the regularization of CIC Operators. Additionally, after the reorganization of J&K in 2019, the General Administration Department (GAD) completed the process of submitting CIC Operator details for further consideration.
“One of the operators’ most pressing concerns is salary stagnation. They have not received an increase in pay since 2010 and continue to work for just Rs 10,000 per month, a rate that has caused severe financial hardship,” the Association said and expressed hope that Omar Abdullah’s Government will honor his prior commitment to resolve these issues, providing much-needed relief to hundreds of families across J&K.
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