Salaries of defaulters including Judges, IFS, JKAS officers stopped
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Nov 1: Initial appointment orders of around 1000 employees of different departments of the Government of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir including two Judges of Subordinate Judiciary and IFS and JKAS officers are not available on Human Resource Management System as such their salaries have been kept withheld.
Now, the Government has directed the concerned Administrative Secretaries to ensure submission of requisite information along with the recommendation within 15 days for the scrutiny by a high-level committee.
The J&K Human Resource Management System (JKHRMS) was launched on October 18, 2022 by Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta and this system provides a unified dashboard for employees wherein vital service related details like posting and promotion, monthly salary slip, income tax remitted, GPF statement and SLI subscription can be accessed.
Accordingly, all the Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) were asked to ensure that all employees under their control register themselves on the portal and cross check their service related information integrated in the JKHRMS.
The assessment of JKHRMS has revealed that initial appointment orders in respect of around 1000 employees of different Government departments have not been posted on the portal as such their salaries have been withheld. Interestingly, these employees have not come forward with the documents in support of their claims during the past over one year.
Now, the General Administration Department has sent a communication to the concerned Administrative Secretaries, which read: “In order to establish the genuineness of the appointment of these employees, documents like authenticated first page of service book indicating relevant entries regarding initial appointment, recommendation of SSB/PSC etc, entries in muster roll or in allied record regarding payment of wages before regularization, reference of appointment in record, entries regarding initial appointment in pay acquaintance roll/allied record and reference of Archives Department are critical in support of the claim of the employees in whose case initial appointment order is not available”.
Accordingly, the General Administration Department has asked the Administrative Secretaries that the requisite information along with the connected documents and recommendation of the Administrative Department regarding genuineness of the claims of the employees regarding regular appointment and continuous unblemished public service may be furnished within 15 days positively for placing the cases before the high-level committee for consideration.
Of these around 1000 employees, 26 are of Agriculture Production Department, 20 of Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department, 82 of Education Department, 10 of Finance Department, 15 of Forest Department, 10 of General Administration Department, 540 of Health and Medical Education Department, 36 of Home Department, 10 of Hospitality and Protocol Department, 40 of Industries and Commerce Department, 128 of Irrigation and Flood Control Department, 30 of Jal Shakti Department, 22 of Public Health Engineering Department, 10 of Public Works Department, 18 of Revenue Department, 11 of Rural Development Department, 13 of Science and Technology Department etc.
A committee headed by Principal Secretary to the Government, Finance Department will scrutinize/verify the entries recorded in the service books of these employees and after establishing the genuineness/veracity of the records of employees will make appropriate recommendations to the concerned Administrative Departments for release of salaries in their favour.
The committee after seeking inputs from the concerned Administrative Departments will make specific recommendations to the General Administration Department in respect of the cases where the genuineness of service records could not be established beyond reasonable doubt.
The members of the committee are Director General, Accounts and Treasuries, representative of the General Administration Department not below the rank of Additional Secretary, representative of ARI and Trainings Department not below the rank of Additional Secretary and representative of the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs not below the rank of Additional Secretary.