Why no Non-Functional Grade promotions for Engineering Gazetted Services in UT of J&K and like?

DAYA SAGAR

Nobody will ordinarily believe that in the so ‘trumpeted’ era of digital India and tall claims of Good Governance by Government of India / J&K ‘State’ government one Er. S. K. Raina who was appointed as Assitant Executive Engineer in J&K Power Development on 17-11-87 then was appointed as Incharge Executive -EE- Engineer on 26-04-2001( then regularised as EE) was not only again promoted (14-09-2006) as I/C Superintending Enginner -SE- but was further promoted (14-09-2007) as Incharge Chief Engineer – CE- by the government and was even retired as I/C CE with pension in the grade of EE from the post of CE 220 kv line project of Baghliar HEPP in 2008 without even being regularised as SE. Under which J&K civil service rules officer promoted in past and are being promoted from one I/C officer to another rank I/C only someone from other ‘planet’ could tell.
Raina’s service – file was even in 2019 in line for regularisation / rejection of incharge promotions made in Administrative Department when such like cases were intimately brought to kind notice of the then Governor Satya Pal Malik even through media focussing also on socio-economic stress retired Sr. Citizens from J&K PDD were suffering like a retired I/C Chief Engineer getting pension in AEE grade even after nearly ten years retirement. It must have been surely with the intervention of Governor that J&K State Administrative Council ( SAC) had on 22-10-2019, interalia, directed that the proposal for regular promotions in the Engineering cadre of the Power PDD be processed for consideration of the competent authority in government through the Establishment cum Selection Committee , even without reference to the J&K PSC as one time exception for completion by 30.11.2019. But even SAC order / direction did not make the files to move worth relief within one month dead line given by SAC.
So painfully some un-regularised JKPDD Retired Engineers even had expired without seeing the light of their regularisation for no fault of theirs viz like. Late E.Sardar Shamsher Singh Rtd I/C C.E had expired and Lt Er. Subhash Sharma expired while working as I/C C.E10-07-2020.
It has been after about 30 months after 22-10-2019 SAC decision that in 2022 with Nitishwar Kumar, IAS Principal Secretary taking over PDD and A.K Mehta as Chief Secretary the process of deciding case files of retired incharge promotees of PDD was taken on priority resulting in some relief to those who retired as I/C Chief Engineers by formally promoting them as EE, SE & Chief Engineer and closing those files that were considered without merit. Vide Government Order No. 49 -JK (PDD) of 2022 D a t e d: 22-04-2022 Er. Vinod Khajuria who retired as I/C Chief Engineer was promoted as Ex. Engr w.e.f 15-09-2006, he has been promoted vide G.O. Order No. 50 -JK (PDD) of 2022 D a t e d: 22-04-2022 as SE w.e.f 15-09-2010 and Chief Engineer vide G. Order No. 51 -JK (PDD) of 2022 D a t e d: 22-04-2022 w.e.f 12-09-2012 . Similarly Er. S.K Raina has been promoted as SE vide G.O. No. 50 -JK (PDD) of 2022 D a t e d: 22-04-2022 w.e.f 14-09-2006 and Vide G.O 51 -JK (POD) of 2022 D a t e d: 22-04-2022 as Chief Engineer w.e.f 14-09-2007. The state of affairs regarding handling the Human Resource Affairs in Administrative departments could be well read from the quotes made here in even at gazetted levels which are solely handled by the Administrative Departments. No doubt some affected retired engineers have questioned rejection of their cases after many years and for that the officers in administrative departments who did not process the files in time need be questioned since that has put individuals as well as public services to loss.
There used to be such cases( still are there) in other departments as well but surely not with IAS officers who have been/are holding the top Administrative posts of Government since firstly their number is not large and 2nd he guidelines for grade / status promotions too are comparatively well laid for them.
May be it is also for such like career securities and assured progress with time even the cream from the talent folk / top engineers from IITs/ Medical professionals have been showing preference for taking to IAS services where once in at Jr scale Grade L-09( 8000-275-13500/53100-157100) directly through UPSC and one can progress without much stress with adhered time slabs from Level-9 to level -11 (10650-325-15850/67700=208700) Senior Time Scale ( 5th yr ), to Level-12 (12750-375-16500/78800-209200) Junior Administrative Grade ( 10th yr ) to Level-13 Selection Grade( 15100-400-18300/118500-214100 ) (13th yr ) to Level -14 Supertime Scale ( 400-500-22400/-144200-218200 ) ( 17th yr ) to Level – 15 First Above Supertime Scale(22400-525-24500/182200-224100; ) i.e Principal Secretary to the State Government. (26th yr ) to Level -17 Grade of Chief Secretary ( 26000; (fixed)/ 225000 fixed apex ) ( 31st yr and Rs. 30000 (fixed)/ 250000 fixed only for the post of Cabinet Secretary in GOI( Guidelines for promotion to various grades of IAS officers issued under No. 20011492-AIS-II of 28-03-2000 ,see Annexure-I) by GOI Ministry of Personnel, P.G. & Pensions Department of Personnel ).
Whereas going by SRO 297 Dated 14-09-2006 PWd/Coord/42/2006 J&K Public works Department a Graduate Degree Engineer who enters gazetted service through JKPSC as Asstt. Engineer (8000-275-12950/ 9300-34800 GP 5200 / 53100-157100) Level-9/ is to move after 2yrs as AE to level of AEE(9000-300-14100/ 15600-39100 GP5600 Level-10 ) then can move to the Level of Executive Engineer service ( 10000-325-15200/15600-39100 GP 6600/ 67700=208700 Level -11) after 4 yrs working as AEE and total 8 yrs Gazetted and from Ex Engr to SE ( 12000-375-16500/15600-39100GP7600/78800-209200 Level 12 ) with 17 yrs gazetted service with atleast 3 yrs experience as Ex. Engr and then with min 20yrs gazetted service with atleast 1yr years as SE to C.E (14300-1400-18300/ 37400-67000 GP 8700/118500-214100 level-13 ). But, timely progress on ground very very rarely tests to criteria laid. And to add to agony there is no promotion in status after one ‘reaches’ level of Chief Engineer, Level -13 only where an IAS officer reaches after 13 years of entering Gazetted service.
No doubt with the intervention of Apex Court J&K Government with SRO-403 of 14-09-2018 amended the JK Civil Service (Revised Pay) Rules, 1992 by adding to the Schedule appended proviso 2nd, saying “The SE only shall be deemed to have been placed in Pay Scale of 4500-5700 in place of 3150-4500 notionally w. e. f. 01-04-1987 and monetarily from 01-04-1990. With that the pay scale of SE is now equal to Level -13 but the CEs too are in Level -13 Grade. Why has Government not made the needed correction for pay scale as well as level of CE at the time of issue of SRO-403 in 2018 itself? Should not governments apply correction without waiting for someone from affected cadres to run for judicial remedies? The pay scales mentioned are as per VII PC Gazette notification and may not be covering all amendments if made at some levels after that.
With Manoj Sinha as LG of J&K and A.K Mehta there as head of the Administration it could be hoped that like a number of other reforms like undoing unfair& frustrating service conditions during 2 yr probation for new government employees under S.O 192 of June 2020 which the earlier governments / popular governments had levied actions regarding reforms concerning the human resource service matters would taken intimately at the earliest. In the mean time surely there is a fair case for immediately ordering according Non Functional Grade Promotions ( Gazetted) also for Engineering Departments like has been done for Medical, ISM, Animal Husbandry, JKAS{SRO 198 of 25-04-2018 – Non-Functional (Monetary) Scheme (NFS) for the members of the J&K Adm. Service}, JKPS { SRO-195 Dated 18-05-2018 Non-Functional (Monetary) Scheme (NFS) for the members of the General Executive Cadre of the Jammu and Kashmir Police (Gazetted) Service}.
(The author is Sr Journalist, social activist and analyst J&K affairs [email protected]).