Srinagar, Jul 11 (KNS): The paucity of staff at the crucial Department of Information and Public Relations (DIPR) is putting an extra burden on the department, leaving its incumbent officers with no choice but to handle the extra work load to keep the official machinery running.

Sources privy to these reports have divulged to Kashmir News Service (KNS) that the officers already discharging their duties in the department have to put in extra efforts and often have to work in double shifts to ensure that the functioning of the department in anyway doesn’t get affected.

Sources revealed that at present there are top positions in the department lying vacant that include the post of Deputy Director PR (Kashmir Division), Deputy Director Centre Kashmir, Field Publicity Officer, Cultural Officer Kashmir, Youth Information Officer and Joint Director Headquarter, Kupwara and Kulgam districts too are running without Information Officers.

In the recent past, said sources, the department wrote a detailed note to the higher authorities asking them to address the issue pertaining to scarcity of staff on priority. However, said sources, no action has been taken so far.

Pertinently, the department in year 2008 conducted an interview for the post of Cultural Assistant but despite passing of eleven 11 years, final selection list of the candidates hasn’t been made public. (KNS)