Gowher Ahmad Bhat
“A fast-track mechanism for regularising in-charge officials is essential to restore confidence and morale within the School Education Department. Timely recognition of service is not merely an administrative requirement—it is a matter of justice, fairness and institutional credibility.”
Recently I received a call from a retired Chief Education Officer who desperately told me to raise the voice of in-charge Officials of the school education department. The officials who are promoted in the capacity of in-charge or look after masters, headmasters, lecturers, ZEOs, Principals and CEOs have to wait for years if not decades for confirmation and regularizations. There are cases in which the officials have retired or some even died without confirmation in the school education department.
There are officials on record in the department who have not yet been confirmed despite serving long in the in-charge capacity. The in-charge lecturers in the discipline of biochemistry and zoology have been waiting from the past thirteen and ten years for confirmation. Such an injustice is unwarranted and uncalled for. It creates a sense of marginalization and insecurity in the concerned officials. Why put them on such a trial and misery for none of their faults.
The unnecessary delay in the promotion has resulted in financial loss as well. There is loss of good amount of money as there is rule in the department that in-charge Officials will be paid arrears only for two years. This will instantly mean that these promotes will not get the benefit of the service in which these promotes serve. This is against the service rules and against the rule of equal pay for equal responsibilities and higher responsibility pay governed by the codes on wages which clearly states that employees should be paid to the status of the position of the official from the date of getting promoted. Articles 14, 16, and 39(d) of the Constitution state that if an employee is adjusted or asked to discharge the duties of a higher post, denying them the corresponding salary of that post is exploitative and illegal.
The delay also sometimes puts a break on the next promotional benefit as there is doubt in the date from which these get regularized. For example a promotee who has been in an in-charge position from the last ten years may be given seniority effect only from five years there by putting a question mark on the other five years rendered in that service.
The departmental promotion committees DPCs in the school education department are taking too much time for confirmation. These time-consuming committees have put a question mark on their work and capabilities.
Giving a tag just for advancement without actual status gives a sense of step motherly treatment and official apathy. The officials who are put to such place use their full potential in the in-charge that could have been original status and serve with their best abilities to run the department smoothly and contribute for the betterment of the department
There should be a proper mechanism in place to make procedures for the promotion of officials. A comprehensive exercise should be conducted in the first instance to identify the vacancies. All stakeholders involved in DPCs must be acquainted with the status and position of vacancies. The legal, financial and others official opinions required for the process cleared in due course of time,a finality of the promotional vacancies framed, promotions with confirmed status then only conducted. This will serve as a boon for future strategy.
An immediate intervention is needed from the education minister to address this grave issue and relieve the officials from this trauma. At this juncture a constitution of committee composed of the concerned officials is required. The in-charge Officials must be regularized by putting in place a Fastrack mechanism without any delay. There are capable leaders in the education department especially the head Education Minister and Principal secretary who can end the agony and misery of the in-charge Officials
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