Administrative mess hits ULB, Dir blames staff shortage

Srinagar: Administrative mess in Urban Local Bodies (ULB) is reported where allegations of backdoor appointments and non implementation of transfer orders galore. On the other hand the department is reported to be understaffed which has been hampering its smooth functioning.

Director Urban Local Bodies, Farook Ahmad Rather, when asked about the non implementation of transfer orders and attaching the under-transfer employees at convenient places, denied that he had attached any employee. By virtue of an order issued during the tenure of Governor N. N. Vohra  all government employees attached at different places were immediately detached and relieved to their original place of posting for further duties. ULB didn’t obeyed the order. The Director says, “I haven’t attached anyone during my tenure in the organization and the status quo is maintained as was earlier.”

Commenting on the illegal appointments, the director stated: “I won’t say illegal in the sense that till 2003 there were no rules and authorities were authorized to engage people in the department. After 2008, rules were framed and this ended the earlier system of engaging people.”

Elaborating further, the director however clarified that before the year 2008, there were some engagements  and not the appointments. “Government has already initiated a probe and enquiry is underway being conducted by a team comprising of 3 senior officers. By now report of the enquiry committee might have gone to the administrative department,” said the director.

The director pointed out the lack of staff. “Department is deficient of staff. I am sure the committee after completing the  enquiry would be making suitable recommendations to the government,” he said. When some names of persons illegally appointed in the department were revealed to him, the director said, “They have been there from last 15-20 years. As already stated that the department is short of staff.There are just 2-3 people who are managing the affairs of the department. and their integrity is beyond doubt. Secondly, we have so many schemes and only these few people are aware of them. That is why we have retained them.”

The director was critical of the ‘mischievious’ people  who have nothing to do but try to sabotage the system. The department would remove any such person who is unfit to serve the department, he added.

“We cannot train people and then throw them out and bring new faces. How can department function in such a scenario. So it makes a sense to keep the people who were engaged and have gained a huge experience over a period of time. Even, as director, it took me couple of months to understand operations of the department,” he said.

Meanwhile, as stated by the director, the department has referred vacancies in the department to the services selection recruitment board (SSRB). So in near future qualified persons will be in the department. This will make end of arbitrary system.