Srinagar, Oct 13 (KNO): Authorities have miserably failed to fill the vacant posts of Project Manager Srinagar as well as Engineers in Jammu and Kashmir Small Scale Industries Development Corporation Limited (SICOP) from past several months, thus paving way for additional charge syndrome and simultaneously affecting the functioning of the corporation.
Reliable sources told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that dozens of posts including the Project Manager Srinagar and Engineers are lying vacant in the corporation for years together and nobody is paying heed to fill the vacancies.
The functioning of the corporation has got badly hit due to the non-filling of the vacant posts, they said, adding that an official is holding more than one charge in one go and thus is affecting the functioning of the corporation.
If sources are to be believed, an official who is on deputation from JK cements to SICOP is holding Xen as well as GM post at the same time. “According to the rules, the official is mandated to either approve the works or to pay an amount. But, holding the twin charges has paved the way for an official to do both works on his own. The official is approving the work as well as disbursing the amount,” sources said, adding that how can anyone amid such happening expect transparency in the corporation.
“Project Engineer South for marketing is also working as Project Manager Srinagar from years now. He is doing civil works, which is against the norms as he has been appointed in the marketing wing and can’t look into the civil works,” sources said.
Besides, the sources in the corporation further added that the Estate Manager posts are lying vacant in almost all the districts of Jammu and Kashmir including Ladakh while two to three officials have been tasked to work in over five districts, which is affecting the functioning of the corporation.
They said there are thousands of youth across Jammu and Kashmir, who are moving from pillar to post in search of jobs and at this time, when the vacancies are already there, it would help the administration in accommodating the huge chunk of educated but unemployed youth at these posts.
As already reported by KNO, many of the officers in SICOP have not been transferred from last nearly one decade, which has put a question mark over the functioning of the corporation.
Even the employees who were sent on deputations have not been sent back to their departments despite getting requests from the higher ups many times in the recent past.
Managing Director, SICOP, Atul Sharma admitted the shortage of employees in the corporation and stated that there is dearth of engineers and other officers in the SICOP—(KNO)