Govt to finalise all cases by March: Singh
Avtar Bhat
JAMMU, Jan 23: Justice eludes about 1400 Zonal Education Officers (ZEOs) in Education Department who are running from pillar to post after being denied regularization since 2011.
According to sources, their cases are in official corridors for years together with the authorities at the helm of affairs showing lack of the interest in disposing them off resulting in resentment among these hapless officers.
Hoping against the hope that a day will come when the regularization orders will be issued in their favour, even majority of these ZEOs have now attained age of superannuation and their pleas to higher ups in this regard have gone unheard while some of the officers among them have passed away over the years, sources said.
Sources said incharge headmasters promoted from 1999 to 2011 were regularized vide Government Order No 684 -Edu of 2012 dated 4-09-2012 in pursuance of the Cabinet decision of 225/26/2011 on the recommendations of Committee constituted vide Government Order No 73 Edu of 2012. In the light of this order 2529 incharge headmasters were regularized as headmasters. Since then those promoted as incharge ZEOs who were already regularized as Headmasters as per Order No 684 and then promoted as incharge ZEOs were not later regularized on the said posts and they are still waiting for the confirmation orders as ZEOs.
Out the 2529 Headmasters, 1384 were promoted as ZEOs and the number has piled up to 1400 till date, sources said.
Sources said out of sanctioned strength of 140 posts of ZEOs in J&K, 75 posts are lying vacant and the Department is being run on stopgap arrangements. The headmasters are promoted as ZEOs at fag end of their services and posted in far flung areas with the result they are unable to pursue their cases in higher offices of Director School Education in Srinagar and Jammu as well as Civil Secretariat, with the result their regularization cum confirmation cases as ZEOs remain pending for years together, sources added.
Sources said that Joint Directors and CEOs who were also promoted among the ZEOs earlier were confirmed but the files of ZEOs are biting dust in the offices. The ZEO is a feeding cadre for post of Principal Plus 2 schools. And Principals list can’t be framed until they are regularised as ZEOs because eligible officers among ZEOs are promoted as principals, sources added.
Sources said up to 2010 there was a criteria for promotion of ZEOs and lecturers to Principals as 50:50 but in 2010 it was reduced to 20:80 as the number of ZEOs was far less than lecturers.
Sources said that till date the list of ZEOs has not been framed for seniority on the basis of which confirmation can be made. A Headmaster can only be promoted as ZEO when the post is vacant and when ZEOs get promoted only then seniority list of Principals can be framed as per quota, sources added.
Sources said that though Education Department being the backbone of the society is being run on crutches over the years despite the tall claims of the Government to improve the standard of education system in the UT, it all seems a hoax.
However, the authorities in the Education Department are confident of settling the issue by March. Commissioner/Secretary Education, B K Singh told Excelsior that by March end they will try to settle the issue and clear all the backlog by regularizing them.
Singh said the “incharges are made for a short span of time and I don’t think why they have been kept for a long time”.
“The Department is framing their seniority list now and our priority is to regualarise all of them by March this year”, he added.
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