JKEEGA seeks filling up of vacant positions across all levels, regularization

STATE TIMES NEWS

JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir Electrical Engineering Graduates Association (JKEEGA), led by General Secretary Sachin Tickoo, has said Engineers have been awaiting resolution of their long-standing human resource issues, particularly regularization and assured career progression/time-bound promotions within the Gazetted cadre. He was accompanied by Executive Council members Gulshan Bhagat, Rajeshwar Jamwal (Vice Presidents), Vishal Singh Chib, Ankush Sharma, Ankush Gupta (Provincial Secretaries), Rohit Gupta, Vijay Sharma, Rajeev Gupta, Vipul Sharma (Organizing Secretaries), Ravi Karloopia, Sumit Sharma, and Illiyas Haroon (Secretaries).
Addressing held a press conference at the Press Club here, Sachin Tickoo said despite a decision by the State Administrative Council on October 22, 2019, to complete regularization by November 2019, the process remains incomplete. “Currently, all engineers, including the Executive Director/Chief Engineer, hold the substantive grade of Assistant Engineer. There is an urgent need to clear impediments and regularize the services of both serving and retired engineers,” he said.
He said many posts from Junior Engineer to Executive Director level are vacant, including 4 Executive Directors, 10 Chief Engineers, 13 Superintending Engineers, 64 Executive Engineers, and 104 Assistant Executive Engineers. He added that no promotions have occurred within the PDD for over six months, leading to a heavy workload on the existing five Chief Engineers, who are managing responsibilities for 15 Chief Engineers as well as EDs/MDs.
Assistant Engineers promoted in January 2024 are still awaiting their higher postings, he added.
The JKEEGA urged the Service Selection Board to expedite recruitment of approximately 292 posts of Junior Engineers to address urgent staffing needs and undertake significant projects worth Rs 5600 crores under RDSS and other centrally sponsored schemes.
JKEEGA appealed to Additional Chief Secretary Shaleen Kabra and the sub-committee to recommend issuing an SRO for Assured Career Progression (ACP) which was approved in 2018 but has not yet been implemented for engineers in J&K, despite being in place for police and JKAS services and in neighboring states.
The association called for the reinstatement of engineers suspended six months ago due to lower billing and collection efficiency. Despite discussions in March 2024, none have been reinstated, causing significant stress.
JKEEGA suggested re-bundling the corporations within PDD as the current unbundled structure has not yielded significant benefits for consumers or the workforce.
The association points out issues like shortfalls in grant-in-aid for salaries and allowances, deteriorating service conditions, and violations of Section 133 of the Electricity Act 2003.
The association appealed to Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha, Chief Secretary of J&K, and Principal Secretary of PDD to address these pressing issues.