Greater Kashmir: Opinion: Sunday, July 09, 2017.
In March this
year a group of educated young men and women working as Class IV employees in
School Education Department from different districts of Kashmir valley came to
my office. Their plea was very much genuine. They alleged that several
un-qualified people were promoted as Junior Assistants (Clerks) by the
Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) several years back. Having
apprehension of getting victimized, the
aggrieved employees requested us to
seek information about this whole issue
under Right to Information Act (RTI). When I was told that employees who cannot
even operate a computer have been promoted as Junior Assistants (clerks) by the
Directorate, I thus decided to file the RTI application myself so as to extract
the factual information.
On March 8th
2017, I filed application under J&K RTI Act 2009 before Directorate of
School Education Kashmir (DSEK). I was provided reply by the Directorate after
a month vide letter No:
DSEK/RTI/F-660/240-42 Dated: 27.3.2017.
After going through the contents of the reply (though incomplete) allegations made by educated class IV
employees turned out to be true.
Information
sought from DSEK :
In a case of
brazen violation of Government norms, more than four dozen class IV employees
of Education Department Anantnag and Budgam had allegedly been promoted as In-charge Junior Assistants
almost 4 years back by the then Director School Education Kashmir Mir Tariq
Ali. The RTI reply made is clear that none of them has passed the mandatory
type test. I sought the list of all the failed candidates which was provided.
Pertinently
under SRO 308 of 2008 Dated 16.10.2008 , 25 % posts of Junior Assistants were
kept reserved for class IV employees of the Education Department who are matriculate
with knowledge of computers . It is mandatory for these officials to pass the
basic type test within a period of 4 months. But in-spite of being promoted
more almost 4 years back , these
employees have not cleared the necessary computer type test. On the other hand
qualified class IV employees (graduates and post graduates) who have been
repeatedly requesting Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) to allow
them to appear for computer type test are not being examined at all. What kind
of good governance and transparency Government is talking about ?
Computer
Illiterates:
The then
Director School Education Kashmir promoted as many as 50 Class IV employees as
Junior Assistants in Budgam and Anantnag districts way back in 2013 vide order
number 2150 DSEK of 2013 dated :
7.11.2013. He had sought approval from the administrative department as well,
but that was given on some conditions.
It is
mandatory to promote only such class IV employees as Junior Assistants (clerks)
who pass the computer type test. But in this case Director promoted them
knowing the fact that they were having no knowledge of computers. To play safe
Director mentioned in the promotion
order that these employees will have to pass necessary type test within 4
months. The Directors order clearly says that till the class IV employees
qualify the type test within a period of 4 months from the date of issuance of
order , they cannot confer any claim /benefit for such placement and in case of
failure, the placement order shall be
deemed as rescinded obinitio. Instead of 4 months, now almost 4 years have elapsed, the illegally
promoted officials have not
cleared the necessary type test. In-fact more than two dozen failed in the test
recently. These officials are presently posted in the offices of Chief
Education Offices (CEOs), Zonal Education Offices (ZEOs) , Govt High and Higher
Secondary schools. They do not know how to even start a computer. Several
officials among them cannot even read a file.
Conclusion:
Few months
back when 16 such promoted officials of Budgam district appeared for the computer
type test, all of them miserably failed during the examination conducted by ITI
Srinagar. On the other hand, tech savvy , qualified , Graduate and Post
Graduate class IV employees have to report to these illiterate clerks ? These
qualified officials are not allowed even
to appear for the computer type test enabling them to get promoted as Junior
Assistants under 25 % reserved promotion quota provided by the Government of
J&K , under SRO 308 .
Why shall
these qualified people be asked to
appear for the computer type test ? They will definitely pass the type test and
thus their bosses will not be able to make any deal with them. Let Education
Minister, Secretary Education and present Director School Education Kashmir
probe this scam & expose the corrupt officers who are playing with the
career of our educated youth. Such officers should not only be declared as dead
wood , but should be given life imprisonment as well.
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