Srinagar, June 24: In violation of service rules, an additional secretary in Jammu and Kashmir government is heading three departments, hampering smooth functioning of all of them. 
The official recently posted as Managing Director Jammu and Kashmir Cable Car Corporation, holds the additional charges of Director Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre (SKICC), Additional Secretary to Government, Information Technology Department and ex-officio Chief Executive Officer, Jammu and Kashmir e-Governance Agency. Incidentally, the officer, enjoying the blessings of a former chief minister,
 has recently been also cleared for deputation to the Central Hajj Committee. Officials said it was not a normal practice to post an additional secretary as head of any department. “Normally only special secretary level officers are posted as HODs. It is only in extreme cases that you can have an additional secretary level officer as HOD. That was a practice in the past, but it is no longer applicable at least for influential cases,” they said.
A senior bureaucrat said by placing additional secretary level officers as HoDs and giving them as many additional charges means hampering smooth functioning of all the departments. “It is true that by giving somebody an additional charge, you are affecting work in all the departments,” the bureaucrat, wishing not to be named, told Greater Kashmir.
Insiders in SKICC, JKCCC believe that the officer was “not able to concentrate” on the entire work in the wake of additional charge of other departments. “If an official holds charge of three departments, none of the departments is benefited because he is not able to give ample time to any particular department,” they said.
“So it is better if the government shuns this additional charge policy and engages full-fledged heads of departments so that people were ultimately benefited,” they said.
Many of the senior KAS officers have expressed strong resentment over the matter. “There are many senior officers in the government who remain pushed to the fence throughout their service career while the ones having political backing get prize postings,” they said.
Interestingly, the MD JKCCC’s deputation has been cleared to Central Hajj Committee.When contacted, the commissioner/secretary, General Administration Department, Basharat Ahmad Dhar said, “The officer is holding the additional charge of SKICC only. There is no cabinet order which says that the additional charge officer can’t be head of the department. There is a clear cut order which says he is holding additional charge of Director SKICC and not the full-fledged. And he is there only till a full-fledged director is appointed.”

Lastupdate on : Thu, 24 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
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