We are going to fill up these posts: Tara Chand
SRINAGAR: The ‘additional-charge syndrome’, where one official manages two posts, is having a negative impact on the working of education sector in Jammu and Kashmir.
A local news agency, CNS, reports that posts of four Chief Education Officers (CEOs) are lying vacant in the Education department and that additional charges have been given to mostly Principal of DIETs in the district besides Kupwara, Ganderbal and Baramulla.
Pertinently one CEO post (Srinagar) was left vacant after the incumbent Nazir Ahmed Kanth was attached to Director Education Office. His charge was given to Principal DIET, Munshi Javid.
“Instead of functioning from CEO office Srinagar, he (Munshi Javid) is seen present at his actual office at Bemina,” one of the senior officers in Education department, who did not wish to be named, told the agency.
In Central Kashmir’s Ganderbal district, Deputy CEO, Khazar Muhammad Mir is functioning as CEO for the past few months. One of the senior officers there said that many Principals in the district are actually senior to this deputy CEO resulting in insubordination.
“This has affected the functioning of the education department badly,” he said.
The post of CEO is also lying vacant in North Kashmir’s Baramula district. “The Principal DIET has given the additional charge of CEO Baramulla. The fact is that his DIET office is located in Sopore while the CEO office is in Baramulla,” a senior officer said, adding that the teachers of the district are facing enormous problems due to this present mess.
A similar situation is prevailing in Kupwara district as well. This district has 14 education zones including Karnah and Tanghdar. Here the additional charge has been again given to Principal DIET Ashok Kumar.
Sources said that additional charges are being assigned to appease some particular political leaders and groups. “A Chief Education Officer in one of the districts of South Kashmir was transferred only after 3 months because he had started a drive against the teachers associated with Kashmir Teachers Forum who used to remain always absent from their duties,” they said.
When contacted, Education Minister Tara Chand told CNS that the Department is going take away these additional charges from the said officers and would fill up the vacant posts.
He said that CEO Baramula was attached on the basis of a complaint and “we had no option but to assign the additional charge to Principal DIET. We are going to soon fill up these vacant posts,” he said.
