Neeraj Rohmetra
Jammu, Mar 17: Reeling under shortage of IAS officers, the State Government has sent a fresh communication to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for sparing few officials of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, who are presently on Central deputation.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR, “immediately after taking over as Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had felt need of some experienced officers to push its development agenda and the issue had also been discussed with the State Governor, N N Vohra”, adding, “as several IAS officials had proceeded on Central deputation during the last few years, the State wants to recall some of them as early as possible”.
“Even the State Governor, N N Vohra had also taken up the issue with the Central Government, when the State came under a short spell of Governor’s rule recently, after the conclusion of Assembly elections in December, last year”, sources said adding, “the Chief Minister has again vigorously taken up the matter with the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for the repatriation of these officers.”.
Sources in General Administration Department who were privy to the letter written by the Chief Minister said, “the Chief Minister in his letter dated March 10, this year has sought personal intervention of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi for repatriation of five senior IAS officials of J&K cadre”.
“These officials were Arun Kumar Mehta, Joint Secretary in Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change; Atal Dulloo, Joint Secretary in Department of Rural Development Department; Raj Kumar Goyal, Joint Secretary in Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Dheeraj Gupta, Advisor to Planning Commissioner and Navin Kumar Choudhary, Joint Secretary with Department of Defence”, sources pointed out.
A K Mehta (1988 cadre) is the senior most official, who went on Central deputation on January 9, this year only and prior to that was holding office of Principal Secretary, Power in the State. Earlier also, he held several posts, while being on Central deputation including CVO, Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Ltd. (DFCCIL) of Railways Ministry and Joint Secretary Ministry of Urban Affairs”, sources said.
Atal Dulloo (1989 batch), who had served as Commissioner-Secretary Tourism proceeded on Central deputation on November 19, 2013. Earlier, he had served as Commissioner-Secretary Science and Technology, Commissioner-Secretary Health and Chairman of Special Tribunal.
Raj Kumar Goyal, (1990 batch), who had served as Principal Secretary to State Governor from August 4, 2009 to April 1, 2013 had also served as CEO, Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and had proceeded to Central deputation in 2013.
Dheeraj Gupta (1993 batch) went to Central deputation in the year 2006 and is presently functioning as Advisor with Planning Commission. Earlier, he had served as Joint Secretary and Director in the Departments of Personnel and General Administration. He had also served as Private Secretary to the Union Defence Minister from 2006 – 2011.
“A request for repatriation of Dheeraj Gupta has already been made to the DoPT and he is due to complete his extended period of deputation with Government of India by July, this year”, sources pointed out.
Navin Kumar Choudhary (1994 batch), had served as Principal Secretary to present Governor, N N Vohra from February, 2012 to April, 2014. While on deputation earlier, he had also served as Advisor to Executive Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Washington and Director Economic Affairs, Finance Ministry.
Union Mos in Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Personnel, Dr Jitendra Singh when asked about the status of the repatriation of these senior officers said, “an appropriate action will be taken soon”.
“Other officers, who are presently on Central deputation included Madhav Lal, Secretary Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; Ashok Kumar Angurana, Secretary Panchayati Raj Ministry; K B Aggarwal, Joint Secretary in Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; Pramod Kumar Jain, Joint Secretary in Ministry of Culture, Sudhanshu Pandey, Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, Micro Small and Medium Enterprises and , Manoj Kumar Dwivedi, who was recently empanelled as Joint Secretary, Private Secretary in the office of Union Minister for MSME”, sources said.
Sources said, “though State Government is keen to get some of these experienced officials back, some of them have given cold shoulder response to the proposal and weren’t keen to return to the State”.
Chief Secretary, Iqbal Khandey, when contacted said, “we have sent the request to Centre for repatriation of some senior IAS officials and hopefully due consideration will be given to the same”.
Due to shortage of officers, several Administrative Secretaries have been given additional charge of several Departments. “In the recent administrative reshuffle, Principal Secretary to the Government, Planning and Development Department, B R Sharma had been given additional charge of the post of Principal Secretary, Home Department, in addition to his own duties. Besides, he has been given charge of Chief Executive Officer, Economic Reconstruction Agency,”, sources said adding, “even the important post of Chief Executive Officer, Shri Mata Vaishno Dev Shrine Board (SMVDSB) had been left vacant after Dr. Mandeep Kumar Bhandari had been recalled and posted as Secretary to the Government, Relief and Rehabilitation Department.”.
It is pertinent to mention here that 14 IAS officers of J&K cadre including the Chief Secretary Mohammad, Iqbal Khandey are going to retire on attaining age of superannuation this year. These included former Chief Secretary Madhav Lal, Iqbal Khandey, Sonali Kumar, Khurshid Ahmed Ganai, Mohd Sharif Sood, Tanveer Jehan, Shagufta Parveen, Abdul Majid Mir, Tushar Kanti Sharma, Mehraj Ahmad Kakroo, Ramesh Kumar Koul, Abdul Majid Ganai,,Shafat Noor Barlas and Mohd Yousuf Dar.
Presently, J&K has sanctioned strength of 137 IAS officers and 75 are direct recruitment posts while as 62 are promotion posts.
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