Govt to cancel all backdoor appointments, initiate action

Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, June 8: The Government has decided to cancel all backdoor appointments made in different departments unauthorisedly by the officers, who were either not competent to engage the workers or had appointed the workers without any vacancy. It would also seek an explanation from the officers, who had made the appointments.
The Government had in the month of April ordered disengagement of all consolidated, casual, daily wagers, need based, contingent and local paid workers, who had been appointed in various departments by the unauthorized officers and without any vacancies.
Nearly 5873 backdoor appointments had come to the notice of the Government at that time. The Government had issued an order for cancellation of the appointments, which had been made by the officers, who had no authority to engage the workers or their departments had no need for the appointments, which had purely been made on “political grounds’’.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Government has now directed all its departments including Power Development Department (PDD), Public Health Engineering (PHE), Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC), Forests, Public Works Departments (PWD), Rural Development Department (RDD), Floriculture and School Education to disengage the workers, who had been recruited by the unauthorized officers without any vacancy and submit a report to it for initiating action against the officers, who had violated the norms.
“Although all these departments figured in the Government list, which were entitled to make need based appointments but they should have been made by the competent officers based on the requirements,’’ sources said and added that “in addition to these departments, no other office was authorized to make such appointments’’
However, according to sources, it has come to the notice of the Government that some Departments, which didn’t figure in the list of “authorized departments’’ to make need based appointments, had also engaged the workers either on the recommendations of political leaders or some officers.
The Government has directed all these offices to disengage the need based workers and submit the Action Taken Report to it.
The Government has also asked the Departments to report to General Administration Department (GAD) to take written report from all the departments to ensure that the unauthorized appointments were cancelled and action taken against the officers responsible for engaging the workers.
Sources said a decision to cancel some regular appointments made through backdoor i.e. without any written test or interview in some other departments were also under consideration before the Government for cancellation. A decision on these appointments was expected to be announced in the next few days.
“The Government was already seized of the matter pertaining to backdoor appointments in all departments. While it has already issued directions pertaining to engagement of need based workers in some departments, it was going to be issued comprehensive orders for other departments,’’ sources said.
It may be mentioned here that the Government had to face massive heat in the Legislative Assembly during budget session of the Legislature in March-April on the issue of backdoor appointments. Later, it had admitted that 5873 backdoor appointments had been made in various departments. It had ordered cancellation of the appointments.
Numerous reports had come to the notice of the Government about backdoor appointments in different departments, which had been made by the officers, who were not entitled to do so. Some of the appointments had been made without any vacancies.