Srinagar, Jan 18: The past week has seen the state government getting back on its feet. Suddenly everything seems to have fallen place with even electricity continuing undisrupted through the recent snowfall in Valley. The change is evident since Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s surprise visit to south Kashmir after January 6 snowfall that found the state administration severely wanting in its response.
 Ever since, the government has suspended more than 250  government employees, including doctors, engineers and senior administrators, to put the soul back into frozen administration. And the move seems to have worked, atleast for now.
 Omar had gone to South Kashmir early this to inspect the availability of the essential services like healthcare, water supply etc. Ostensibly undertaken as a damage control for the prolonged electrical failure in the wake of the snowfall, CM to his surprise found senior officials absent at Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam district hospitals. Scene was no different in departments like Public Health Engineering (PHE), Power Development Department (PDD). CM’s quiet visit was followed by suspension orders to around 30 employees, including senior doctors and engineers in the districts.
 Suspension have since continued, almost being as a systematic policy measure to put the government back on rails: Around 214 more employees have been served show cause notice for delinquency from duty. Significantly, they include 48 doctors and a dozen engineers.
 Divisional administration found 65 officials absent at hospitals in Srinagar, which included 23 doctors. The staff will see a one-day cut in their salaries.
 Earlier last week, 99 officials including 11 doctors and four engineers were found absent at Bones & Joint Hospital, Maternity Hospital Sanat Nagar, offices of Chief Engineer R&B, PMGSY, Irrigation Flood Control, PHE, MD Forest Corporation, Executive Engineer and Electric and Pollution Control Board.
 In Sopore, nine employees of Public Health Engineering and Irrigation departments (PHE) were un-authorizedly absent from duty and were slapped with suspension orders.
 In Kupwara, 14 employees of health department, including six doctors, were asked to stay at home after failing to attend duty.
 In Kokernag, 17 were placed under suspension, including five from essential and emergency department of Roads and Buildings. In Bandipora, 13 government offices, including two doctors, were suspended.
 The suspensions, which have followed swift and fast  have also brought into focus the poor attendance of employees even in times of emergency like heavy snowfall, which in turn affects the administrative work. It remains to be seen whether such extreme steps make any redeeming difference to the administration in future.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 IST