Avtar Bhat
KATHUA, June 8: The problems of people have compounded with several posts of senior officers remaining vacant in Kathua district for months together and despite the pleas of the people the Government has failed to fill up the same putting an question mark that how the district is run by the administration.
According to sources, one post of Executive Engineer PDD is vacant in Kathua since February this year while the post of Executive Engineer Mechanical Division Kathua is also vacant since March this year.
Sources said while the Circle SE, PDD for Samba and Kathua districts Ashwani Kumar Gupta is holding the additional charge of XEn PDD Kathua, the charge of XEn PHE Mechanical is held by XEn PHE Civil, Kathua.
Sources said the Executive Engineer PDD Kathua was transferred by the Government in the month of February on the basis of complaint and since then his successor was not posted in the Division. The SE PDD has been given the additional charge with the result the functioning of the Division has suffered a lot due to the workload on Superintending Engineer, sources added.
Besides the posts of Assistant Commissioner R Land Acquisition, Ravi Tawi is also vacant for last six months and the post is held by ACR Revenue, Kathua in addition to his own duties. The district administration had also written to higher authorities in Revenue Department for immediate filling up of the post in view of the urgency of job but no steps were taken by the Government in this regard till date.
Moreover, the posts of AEE of PHE is also lying vacant in Bani Sub Divisions for last six months putting people to many hardships. The charge has been given to AEE Basholi and the people have to travel from Bani to Kathua or Basholi for redressal of their grievances regarding water supply. Likewise the post AEE, PDD Sub Division Hiranagar is also lying vacant for last four months after his attachment to Chief Engineer’s office M&RE Jammu in February this year sources added.
Sources said the post of Agrarian Tehsildar is also lying vacant in Hiranagar tehsil of Kathua district for last six months and no steps have been taken by the revenue authorities to fill up the same despite the fact that the post is of very important nature directly linked to public.
Moreover, the post of Agrarain Tehsildar Kathua, Agrarian Tehsildar Basholi and Agrarian Tehsildar Bani are also lying vacant, sources added.
Sources said despite several deputations of the people meeting the authorities including the Revenue and Rehabilitation Minister no steps were taken to fill up these posts with the result the people especially the farmers were facing lot of problem.
Sources said nine posts of education officers including five principals of Higher Secondary schools and four zonal education officers are lying vacant in the district for a pretty long time affecting the education of students to a great extent. The ZEOs posts are lying vacant in Lakhanpur Zone, Mareen Zone, Basholi Zone and Barnoti Zone while the posts of Principals are lying vacant in Higher Secondary Kathua , Main boys, Higher Secondary School Parnala, Higher Secondary School Dar Mahanpur etc.
Sources said a large number of posts of doctors are also vacant in the district especially in far flung areas and the authorities don’t bother to fill up them with the result the people in far-flung areas of the district suffer for want of proper medicare facilities.