Ladakh grapples with shortage of manpower, governance takes hit

The Union territory of Ladakh is facing acute shortage of officials and officers in the civil secretariat as well as the field offices, which in turn has hit the day-to-day governance.

An official said many administrative departments were headless while as positions of sub divisional magistrates, executive engineers, block development officers and other positions were also vacant in several field offices.

   

In a communication, Umang Narula, Advisor to Lt. Governor Ladakh has made a request to the Union Home Ministry as well as J&K government for immediate deployment of officials to the UT to meet the shortage of manpower in directorates and other offices.

“Ladakh is facing serious constraints of manpower at various levels after the establishment of the Union Territory,” reads the letter.

Seeking deployment of officials, Narula has written that the UT secretariat, directorates and other departments were functioning with minimal staff attached from the district offices since no supporting staff has been made available till date.

“Some directorates and departments are headless which is adversely affecting the delivery of the public services,” reads the letter.

In reference to this letter, General Administration Department (GAD) has requested several top bureaucrats to depute officials from J&K to Ladakh for a period of two years to enable normal functioning of the UT.

The GAD has sought list of officers from different departments by July 16 to enable it to issue orders for deputation.

Another official said they immediately require 251 field officers, directors, under secretaries, executive engineers and others to run day-to-day affairs in Ladakh even as he said the sanctioned posts in different departments were 682.

The official said the UT immediately required 18 additional secretaries, financial advisors, chief account officers as well as doctors in different disciplines including Gastroenterology, ophthalmology, dermatology, neurology, and cardiology to run health institutions and other departments.

Ladakh has sanctioned strength of seven directors but only four positions have been filled. One of the two sanctioned positions of Chief Engineers in power development department is vacant in Ladakh.

Similarly, three of the four positions of joint directors, economic and statics department are also vacant.

According to the official, all six positions of under secretaries are vacant apart from one posts of additional commissioner in the office at Divisional Commissioner, Kargil.

Against 10 positions of SDMs, six are vacant while four of the 17 sanctioned posts of tehsildars have not been filled so far.

Of the sanctioned 18 positions of executive engineers in PWD and PHE departments, five are vacant.

Similarly, an official said, the UT immediately requires seven consultant physician and 40 medical officers.

“We also require 10 assistant account officers, 12 assistant directors (P&S), 10 private secretaries, two law officers, and 10 section officers to run the affairs in respective departments,” said the official.

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