Srinagar, Feb 04 (KNS): Facing acute shortage of employees the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department in Pulwama is run on crutches as only 182 employees are running its 152 stores, office, enforcement wing and online system.
The department caters to 4.76 lakh souls in the district and the employees shortage has crippled its work.
Even as the department has shifted to online mode for public services, of the 182 employees, 70 percent employees of FCS and CA Pulwama don't know how to run the online system given their age and computer knowledge.
Populous areas like Khrew and Pampore areas having 16 sales centre are run by only 5 store keepers, which affects distribution of ration at these centers.
Contrary to the other districts of the Jammu and Kashmir which recruited Class 4 employees to address staff shortage, the administration of FCSCA failed to contest expeditiously litigations about recruitment of staff for Pulwama district pending in High Court since 2016.
Instead of streamlining the department and filling shortage of the employees, the Commissioner Secretary FCSCA Friday issued transfer orders of four Assistant Directors of the department, including AD Pulwama who has been shifted to Doda and is replaced by an Incharge AD Mushtaq Ahmad Wani with additional charge district Shopian.
Assistant director Pulwama Anayatullah Sheikh been transferred to Doda as "punishment" posting for not filling false information about ration supply of Shopian district as additional charge which could have pleased it’s commissioner Secretary.
Sources told Kashmir News Service (KNS) that the commissioner secretary had asked the AD to show 100 percent ration supply for Shopian district in Supply Chain Management online for January, which would have amounted to committing a "fraud" and lying to the government as Shopian district had received its required and sufficient supply for winter months in November.
As Shopian receives heavy snowfall during winter, the department dumps ration in advance for these months in November.
Officials in directorate office said that AD could not have shown 100 percent supply for January as it would have fraud and lie.
Sources said that this irked the Commissioner Secretary and he ordered transfer of AD Pulwama to Doda "to satisfy his ego" since the officer didn't comply to his "false direction".
Locals and employees of the FCSCA Pulwama and Shopian have expressed shock for transferring "an honest and efficient" officer from the districts who ran them well despite huge staff shortage.
Locals and employees said from the last two years, the officer streamlined the department both offline and online and resolved huge number of consumer grievance, brought transparency into it and also exposed two previous scams in ration cards and Ujwala domestic gas scheme.
The locals have urged the LG Manoj Sinha and Chief Secretary to intervene and inquire why the official was transferred to Doda by the Commissioner Secretary even as he was running efficiently two districts from last two years with no complaints from public.
Locals have also urged the LG and Chief Secretary to look into why the department has failed to pursue the case of recruitment pending in the high court since 2016. (KNS)