Early Times Report
Jammu, June 3: In the backdrop of row over transfers and postings of officials, a fact that has unfolded in the echelons of power is that General Administration Department which comes under direct control of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed remains flooded with 'Direct Official' (DO) letters from the ministers in the PDP-BJP coalition with strong recommendations of officers of various ranks in different departments of the state.
Sources within GAD said that the department is under constant pressure from ministers, mostly from BJP seeking postings of high ranking senior officials at choicest places. Every day GAD Principal Secretary gets such letters from ministers in which the latter seek either cancellation of transfer orders or postings at new places as desired by the officials close to them, said the sources adding that some of these letters have got piled up pending clearance from the higher authorities-either Chief Minister himself or the Chief Secretary, both of whom are competent authorities in high level postings of gazetted cadre in the state. Sources further said that while in some cases ministers seek such favours verbally, in majority of cases they do it through DO letters , which have in a way become a potent means to get through the favours.
The ministers, sources said are seeking such favours for Jammu based high ranking officials who are posted against various posts, certainly not of their liking for apparent reasons, said the sources adding that it has become a precedent, rather a norm for most of the ministers to shoot one such letter at intermittent intervals. The recommendation is made on one or the other pretext and strong enough to put the authorities under pressure to oblige the ministers, said the sources. The precedence of flooding GAD with such letters is however far less with PDP ministers who by and large comply what their Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had pleaded when this government came to power three months back. Pertinently, CM had given clear instructions that no minister should give recommendations nor encourage such culture of seeking transfers of officials who are close to them or belong to any powerful lobby.
Even though the CM had given the reference of high incidence of such things during the previous coalition government, contending that transfer industry had flourished far more than tourism industry in the state, things have not changed much in the present dispensation with ministers resorting to such tactics with no deterrence of what CM had sought, sources said adding that some of them continue to take 'help' as conduits of certain elements who were agents with previous NC-Congress government for ensuring transfers of powerful and influential. On the contrary, everyday the chambers of almost all the ministers are flooded with postal stuff of common people with genuine grievances and problems seeking transfers or postings on humanitarian grounds which more often than not goes into dust bin at the end of the day as these commoners neither have money nor access in the powerful quarters who can listen to them of do any favour, sources further said . |
