By Ghulam Mohammad Bhat
Govtt has recently constituted a Group of officers to carve out a roadmap and a way forward for ending the decades old faulty system of Adhocism in promotions.
The practice of giving promotions as In charge Basis without ordering regular substantive promotions has time and again been deprecated by the Supreme Court, especially after passing famous judgement in the case ((Suraj Parkash Gupta and others v/s State of Jammu and Kashmir in 2000 AD.
It is a fact that excepting a few Departments, almost all departments of j and k have been caught by the syndrome of worst human Resources management. Official negligence and absence of will, is the basic cause for this failure. This system is however preserved and nourished by the officers themselves.
Officers are running the establishment of the cadres themselves at basic levels of Districts/Provinces, if not at state level. Who stops them to frame a comprehensive and updated Human Resources Data and help their Administrative Departments to manage the system properly. Why there are Model Human Resources Management in General Administration Department,KAS,JK Accounts Service,JK Statistical and Planning Department.
The worst Management is in Education Department and in all Engineering Cadres.
Nothing can be commented upon teaching fraternity who are scattered and consist of big and huge element of manpower. But it is unbecoming of Esquire Engineers who choose to prioritise their postings as a status symbol, then deriving what they deserve as beneficiary of a Standard Human Resources Management. They never resent to take over as Chief Engineer in the pay and scale of Asst.Engineer.They are themselves responsible for this disrespectful state of affairs.They are managing Departments,why they cannot manage the manpower which never cross more than four or five thousand Engineers in a particular Cadre. Government also takes them for granted as they are always pursuing their convenient postings and aspiring nothing in concrete for their Career and Service issues. It is shamefully a fact that an Engineer who gets elevated three to four times in his career without any monetary benefit of higher/highest pay and grade, expires after his retirement without receiving due during his/her lifetime.
Engineer cadres are manageable compared with Education and other big manpower Departments.
Adhocism in the Departments demoralise the enthusiasm of entry level Junior technocrats/professionals. This affects their working results.
The system of elevation as in charge officer, even not having substantive status in his/her lower post but only in entry post, has been made a point of debate in all forums of Judiciary.
Now the Government has constituted a Group which will study the issue and the bottlenecks thereof and suggest the roadway/way forward for ending Adhocism in promotions. This is not a Rocket Science at all. In the present digital age,it is not a hurkulian task to frame Data for all this excercise.It is a matter of one, two or three thousand people in different Engineering Cadres.
In recent times PWD((R & B)) wing has been seen progressing on improving a lot their HR Management, though still they need to boost it further.
Power Development Department is as on date lagging behind.Hydralic and Mechanical Engineering Departments are also lagging behind badly.
This is the time that Engineering fraternity should utilise their offices, position and capabilities to assist the Government to carve out a methodology for eliminating adhoc in charge system in their respective wings.
1) Sanctioned strength in each Cadre.
2) The incumbents working both substantively and as In Charge.
3) Number of posts vacancies available to be filled up from different sources as per existing recruitment rules. This is not a big task in Engineering Departments as manpower is not huge comparing with other Departments.
4) The most basic and fundamental task is to consolidate and update Seniority lists. The Departments should cater to grievances of each and every member of Cadre on merits but well in time. Not accepting genuine representations at appropriate time and pushing them to wall, involves avoidable judicial interventions and futility of loss of time and cost of litigations disrupts all steps for smooth functioning of the Human Resources Management.
5) The higher ups should associate the fraternity in day to day management of Human Resources in their wings and Associations also need to be taken on Board. The Associations should also create a parallel Data about Human Resources of their wings in all respects. This way they can watch the genuine interests of their Cadre and help the Authorities also.
Carving out a roadway/roadmap/ way forward for ending Adhocism in Government Departments is neither difficult nor impossible but needs a determined will.
The Senior officers who constitute the Group framed by the Government are well-versed and Job experts in the field and it is hoped that they will carve out the best possible roadway. The higher ups in the Departments should also assist them in accomplishing their task and should not play as mute spectators. This will be ill affording.
Ghulam Mohd Bhat is an Ex Member J&K Accounts Service.
