CS discusses employees’ issues with Administrative Heads

Srinagar: Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, on Wednesday convened a meeting with the Administrative Secretaries to take stock of promotions and compassionate appointments made in favour of employees working for J&K Government.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary took note of the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meetings held by the departments both at administrative and HoD level for the Gazetted and Non-Gazetted posts.
He impressed upon the departments to conduct DPCs on regular basis for the employees who deserves career progression while performing their assigned tasks. He asked about the employees placed on higher grades in OPG mode and their subsequent promotions on regular basis.
He also impressed upon the ARI & Trainings Department to conclude finalisation of Recruitment Rules of different departments currently under updation. He urged them to make this updation a time bound exercise.
Dulloo further noted that few departments are plagued with adhoc promotions that needs to be fixed. He directed for constituting a committee of senior officers including from GAD and Finance to look into the issue to settle it forever. He advised them to examine the matter related to identification of the non-gazetted vacancies for recruitment in the education department.
Regarding the compassionate appointments in favour of the kin of deceased employees under SRO-43 and newly christened Rehabilitation Assistance Scheme (RAS), the Chief Secretary underscored the need of further accelerating the process. He directed the concerned to put the cases before the designated committees for their clearances and issuance of orders in favour of the applicants. He also enjoined upon them to complete the appointment of remaining eligible candidates under SRO-43 at an earliest.
Commissioner Secretary, GAD, M.Raju, while providing relevant details in the meeting, revealed that there are around 1151 cases of RAS pending, out of which, 507 cases received in 2022 and 2023 had been forwarded to the departments for their appointment. He further made out that there are just 175 SRO-43 cases pending in different departments most of which are going to be settled in a month or so.
About the promotions made by different departments, the meeting was apprised that at the HoD level 76 DPCs were convened in the year 2024 in addition to 14 at Administrative/PSC level for filling of gazetted vacancies.
Moreover, the meeting was informed that 929 non-gazetted and 231 gazetted employees were placed in OPG on higher posts demanding regularisation through DPCs at the appropriate level. It was added that 4825 non-gazetted and 272 gazetted vacancies are currently available under promotion quota in various government departments of J&K.
The Chief Secretary also took stock of the action initiated against employees through Regular Departmental Actions (RDAs) recommended by GAD/ACB for their misconduct or indulging in malpractices. He maintained that the actions taken against the employees should be exemplary and proportionate to their misdeeds. He also asked them to furnish the details of actions taken by the departments against such employees. He advocated such actions should act as deterrent for others to repeat these offences.
Regarding the status of RDAs by the Departments, M Raju informed the meeting that out of the total of 900 RDA cases, 468 are currently active with 351 closed after taking different actions by the concerned departments. It was also revealed that 81 cases are also pending in GAD for their final note to be appended on the same as per the law in vogue.