Javaid Naikoo
Early Times Report
Srinagar, May 11: A major scam has surfaced in Regional News unit, Doordarshan Kendra (DDK) Srinagar. An official enquiry has exposed wrong doings in engagement of casual labourers by former directors and suggests re-screening of people engaged from time to time.
Documentary evidence in possession of Early Times reveals that in year 2012, Prasar Bharti nominated three officials R.Venkateswarlu then additional Director General (P&A) DG, Doordarshan, Mukul Tyagi then Additional Director General, DG, all India Radio, Somesh.C.Jhingan then Deputy Director General (A&F) DG, All India Radio to examine nature of engagements of casual labourers by Regional News unit Heads of Srinagar unit since 1991.
In their detailed report, the inquiry officials in first para mention that "No specific guidelines were followed by the Directors of the Kendra for booking of casuals from 1991 onwards and their engagements have been made directly without following any norms as militancy was at its peak and many deserving seniors have been left out."
The report mentions that "Kendra earlier provided information about actual number of engagements as 56 (37+19TSWs)+120 (other casual assignees)=176 but the actual number of casual labourers plus casual assignees, 213 are working at present,144 casuals were discontinued in 2004,which was shown wrongly by the Kendra as "177" discontinued earlier as per the court order and seven casuals were discontinued recently.
The report further reveals that during the tenure of M.Farooq Nazki as head of RNU Srinagar from 02/12/1991 to 26/06/1997,71 people were engaged as casual labourers,14 more were engaged in progaramme section and 5 in news section.
During the tenure of another RNU Head, Sirja-ud-din Qureshi from 12/09/1997 to 11/10/1998,10 people were engaged in Programme section and 1 person was engaged in news section.
During Ashraf Sahil's times from 12/10/1998 to 23/09/2001,16 persons were engaged in programme section and 5 other were engaged in news section.
P.K Munshi engaged 144 people as casual labourers, again during the tenure of Siraj-ud-din Qureshi from 24/09/2001 to 16/08/2004, 144 people were engaged and later discontinued,37 more were engaged in programme section and 2 others in news section.
During the tenure of Shehzadi Simon from 16/08/2004 to 13/12/2007,39 people were engaged in programme section and 2 were engaged in news section.
During the tenure of Tangmo from 17/12/2007 to 10/04/2008,1 person was engaged in programme section.
Rafiq Masoodi from 30/04/2008 to 07/07/2011, 8 engaged 8 persons as casual labours,7 others were engaged in programme section and 2 in news section.
Similarly during the tenure of Shami-Shair from 08/07/2011 onwards to the time this inquiry was conducted, 7 persons were discontinued.
The report has mentioned that " most of times it is the discretion of the Director of the Kendra who handpicked the persons and no specific procedures were followed and sometimes Programme officers too have suggested certain names for their sections, approved by Director of the Kendra."
Report exposes that "Vacancy positions of posts from1990 onwards are not available, However vacancy position of all categories as for past three years then are vacancies of 114 in 2009,146 in 2010 and 137 in 2011 against the sanctioned strength of 421 in all grades and casuals have been engaged irrespective of staff strength.
In clear cut words, inquiry report mention that "No such permissions has been obtained by from the Directorate for engaging these casuals, no files are available, there is no regular appraisal system based on performance and specific reasons have been mentioned for their engagements.
It does not stop here, the inquiry report mentions that some people engaged are working at the residencies of the certain officers, some persons are not regularly reporting for duty and most of casual assignees do not possess suitable qualifications or skills to work in Programme section.
Officials in the concluding para of inquiry report suggest that "a regular procedure must be introduced based on the requirement and programme exigencies of the Kendra and all existing casuals shall be re-screened by a committe of the officials by co-opting the outside experts in the field of television production to select suitable persons with a fresh notification for suitable people and weed out all unsuitable existing persons picked up without any rationale in the past.
Pertinently Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour recommended that Casual Artists, Casual Labourers and other contract employees of Radio Kashmir, CBS and DDK Srinagar be regularized and steps to safeguard their legitimate rights be expedited.
When contacted Director DDK, RNU Srinagar, Shafiq Ahmad Said that no fraudulent engagements are happening in RNU since he took over the charge as Head of RNU and whatever inquiry committee has mentioned in its report about fraudulent engagements is true but he is not involved any way. |
