Recommendations made by committee yet to be accepted
*No major headway on assets liquidation, clearance of liabilities
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, June 11: Government has failed to decide the fate of employees of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Supply and Marketing Federation (JAKFED), which was closed as per the decision of the Administrative Council nearly three years back. Moreover, there is no headway on the liquidation of assets which otherwise is imperative to clear the pending liabilities.
The decision to wind up the loss-making JAKFED was taken by the State Administrative Council (SAC) headed by the then Governor of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik in the month of June 2019 and it was announced that the process will be concluded by the Registrar, Cooperative Societies in terms of Section 74 of the Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Society Act, 1989 by August 31, 2019.
The SAC had also directed the Cooperative Department to constitute a committee which will coordinate the winding up of JAKFED and come up with a detailed winding up plan including an appropriate VRS for employees of the Federation.
All the movable/immovable assets of JAKFED shall be taken over by the Government and financial commitments, if any, shall be met by the Cooperative Department through sale of these assets and the Government shall not bear any financial liability whatsoever on this account, the SAC had made it clear.
“However, despite lapse of nearly three years neither the assets of the erstwhile JAKFED have been liquidated nor the fate of the employees decided although some exercise has been conducted in this direction by the Cooperative Department”, official sources told EXCELSIOR.
There are around 11 assets of JAKFED at different locations particularly in Jammu and Srinagar and their valuation has been conducted by the Cooperative Department. “The value of these assets is around Rs 100 crore while as JAKFED is supposed to clear liabilities worth Rs 107 crore”, sources informed.
“Though Jammu and Kashmir Medical Supplies Corporation Ltd and Srinagar Municipal Corporation have shown interest in taking over some assets of JAKFED yet because of certain land title related issues no headway could be made till date”, sources further informed, adding “unless all the assets are liquidated the Cooperative Department will not be in a position to clear the liabilities keeping in view the decision of the Administrative Council about giving no financial support in this regard”.
Vide Government Order No.12-JK-Coop dated June 8, 2021, a committee was constituted to frame an appropriate Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for the employees of erstwhile JAKFED. The committee comprising several officers of the Cooperative Department, after a detailed exercise, has submitted its recommendations to the Government for decision of the competent authority but the same is still awaited.
“The committee has recommended two options——absorption of willing employees of erstwhile JAKFED in other departments strictly as per the rules on the subject and providing benefit of VRS to other employees”, sources said while expressing inability to specify time-frame for completion of both the exercises——liquidation of assets and deciding fate of the employees.
The delay in deciding the fate of the employees is notwithstanding the fact that verification of service records of the employees has already been conducted by a team of the Cooperative Department. This step was imperative as record of the employees was missing as no serious attention was paid by all those who remained head of the Federation during all these years towards maintenance of files.
When contacted, Registrar Cooperative Shafqat Iqbal confirmed that liquidation of assets was taking time due to certain issues. “We are trying to sort out the issues so that this exercise is taken to the logical conclusion as early as possible”, he added.
About the fate of employees of erstwhile JAKFED, he said, “the competent authority in the Government is supposed to take decision on the recommendations of the committee. I am not in a position to specify the time-frame for settlement of all the issues”.
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