Govt sacks contractual employees engaged after 2010, reiterates ban

JAMMU: The State government on Friday has discontinued the services of all contractual employees engaged by all the departments after 2010, besides those who were engaged after 2015 without the requisite approval of Chief Minister through the Finance department.

Taking a strong stand, the government warned the concerned officers of dire consequences in case its instructions are not adhered to.

“If the departments failed to implement these instructions, the concerned officer will be held personally responsible and amount due or paid to such irregular appointee will be recovered from the personal emoluments of the officer,” an official order said.

“Time and again, the government has impressed upon the departments the ban on the engagement of casual, seasonal, ad-hoc, consolidated, contractual and need-based daily rated workers. However, due to certain lags in its implementation, the General Administration Department (GAD) today reiterated the orders,” Commissioner Secretary, GAD, Farooq Ahmad Lone told The News Now.

In year 2010, the government had banned the appointment of all contractual employees.

“No appointment would be made by any department against any post on ad-hoc, contractual, consolidated, temporary basis and all vacant posts shall be filled up strictly in accordance with the rules governing the recruitment to the respective services or posts,” the government had said while banning the appointment of contractual employees.

In year 2015, the government had withdrawn the powers from Administrative Departments to engage casual labourers, and had made mandatory the prior approval of the Chief Minister through the Finance Department for any new such engagement.

After receiving complaints that despite the ban, engagement of contractual employees in government departments goes unabated, the government today asked all the officers to observe the statutory rules and codal provisions in “letter and spirit” regarding the ban on the engagement of casual, seasonal, ad-hoc, consolidated, contractual and need-based daily rated workers.

The government has ordered that any person appointed on ad-hoc/contractual/consolidated/ temporary basis after the imposition of ban on such engagements (on or after 29.04.2010) in contravention of the provisions of Section 14 of the Jammu

“Any person engaged as casual/seasonal/need bases worker after imposition of ban on such engagements (i.e. on or after 17.03.2015) without specific approval of Competent Authority or without following due procedure shall also cease to continue forthwith,” reads the official order.

“In the event of failure to comply with these instructions, the concerned officer(s) will be held personally responsible and the amount due or paid to such irregular appointee(s)/engage(s) shall be recovered from the personal emoluments of the officer(s) concerned who had made/continued such engagements(s) in violation of the rules, orders or codal procedures, besides the termination of all such irregular appointment(s)/engagement(s),” the order read.

“All Administrative Secretaries, Divisional Commissioners, Heads of the Departments Deputy Commissioners shall ensure strict compliance of the above instructions,” it added.

It may be recalled that, soon after the fall of BJP-PDP coalition government in June 2018, then Governor N N Vohra had constituted a high empowered committee headed by then Finance Secretary Navin Choudhary to regularize the contractual employees.

The committed had held the six meetings and cleared the cases of around 900 employees. However, after the election of urban local bodies in Jammu and Kashmir, the committees’ meetings have become very less frequent and in this year, no meeting has been held so far.