I/C Chief Enggs, SEs retiring on post of AEs, AEEs
Gopal Sharma
JAMMU, Oct 4: Incredible it may sound to many but it is true that many Incharge Chief Engineers and I/C Superintending Engineers in PDD, PHE/ Jal Shakti, Irrigation and Flood Control Department, PW (R&B), Mechanical Engineering Deptt, REW, JKPDC etc are retiring as Assistant Engineers, Assistant Executive Engineers or rarely Executive Engineers as no seniority list is being issued by the authorities above this cadre in J&K since long.
The adhocism in the Engineering departments in J&K has marred the career prospectus of hundreds of Degree Engineers (B.Tech/ M.Tech) as they are promoted as Incharge against the higher posts in their own pay and grade. This ill-conceived practice, devised by the then people at the helm of affairs in J&K, has deprived this section of employees in J&K of their legitimate right to the promotions at higher cadre with full benefits.
Official sources told the Excelsior that though some encouraging response has been witnessed in the PW(R&B) for the past some time but worst is the condition in the Power Development Department, PHE/ Jal Shakti, Irrigation, Flood Control Departments. The promoted engineers are given only charge allowance and they are promoted to the next post in their own pay and grade. It takes years for PSC clearance and even authorities at the helm of affairs least bother to clear their promotion related files and place them at the respective position despite the fact that many posts go vacant for long thus effecting the work in many Divisions and Sub Divisions of the Engineering departments .
There is strong resentment among the retired un-regularised Electrical engineers as well besides those serving in various departments. But worst problem is being faced by the engineers in the Power Development Department , who are projecting their case regularly for their regularization.
While projecting the plight, All J&K Retired Un-regularized Electrical Engineers Forum pointed out that last regularization order in the PDD was issued way back in 2001, that too, in pursuance to the Supreme Court judgment delivered in the case of “Suraj Parkash Gupta v/s J&K State”. Since then, all the promotions to all the posts have been done on In-charge stop gap basis The engineers continued to retire without being confirmed and as such even Chief Engineers / SEs/ Executive Engineers are drawing their pension of the posts of AEE/AE and even JE only. It is matter of serious concern that even those who had joined service as Assistant Engineers in 1987 are still awaiting their first regular promotion.
The sources further revealed that many insurmountable obstacles were noticed in the way of regularization during past one decade. After exerting pressure by the aggrieved engineers, the State Administrative Council in its meeting on October 22, 2019 had directed that the proposal for regular promotions of Power Development Department be processed on fast track at Department level without referring to the Public Service Commission as one time exemption and whole process was supposed to be completed within two months (By November 30,2019), but it took nearly four months for the SAC decision to even get translated into committee for recommending the proposals for regularization of engineers of the Department for placement before the established committee.
“The General Administration Department (GAD) vide its order No. 308-JK (GAD) of 2020 dated March 2, 2020 constituted a high powered committee under the chairmanship of Administrative Secretary, Power Development Department to examine, scrutinize and recommend the cases of the engineers for regularization. The Committee had its members from Finance, Law and GAD among others. After nearly six months on Sept 1, 2020 the first meeting of the empowered committee examined the proposal of the Department.
This committee under the chairmanship of Principal Secretary, Power, Rohit Kansal after having completed the marathon exercise recommended the regularisation of 45 Executive Engineers and 179 AEEs as Executive Engineers, SEs and Chief Engineers, all of whom are retirees from the year 2000 to 2018. The case was forwarded to the GAD to place before the Establishment Committee.
The GAD raised certain queries including non-submission of updated Vigilance clearance. The matter was taken up with the higher authorities in the GAD in respect of retired officers for provision of integrity certificate as one time exemption as many of them have retired about 15 to 20 years ago and some settled abroad. The proposal in respect of retirees still awaits nod from the office of Chief Secretary while in case of in-service engineers, it is no where in sight,” the sources added.
Due to the hurdles and hurdles all along the way of proposal which was to be completed within two months as per SAC directives, could not be cleared even after two years, that too when it had only retired engineers. Same is the fate of engineers in most of the other departments while R&B has shown encouraging response during last few months in clearing such cases.
Sources added that the pain and trauma through which the entire lot of brilliant engineers are going through, who have even received gold medals for their excellent services to the State are being deprived of their legitimate right of regularization benefits. It is unfortunate that some of them died in harness awaiting for the day of their recognition/ regularization.
A senior officer in the J&K UT Administration when contacted disclosed on the condition of anonymity that a proposal with regard to regularization of 166 Electrical Engineers, including mostly retirees, has been forwarded to the Establishment Committee. It is likely to be cleared in next meeting of the said committee headed by Chief Secretary. Once this case had been sent back with some queries but it was again forwarded after clearing deficiencies.
The officer further disclosed that after clearance of this list, the work on the second list having mostly in-service engineers is being prepared on fast track basis and will be recommended for the clearance and regularization as soon as possible. “This is very genuine issue and the engineers are suffering for the last so many years. They will definitely get some relief shortly,” the officer maintained.
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