Srinagar: The Administrative Reforms, Inspections (ARI) and Trainings department is pitching for taking back the administrative control and budget allocation of JK Board of Professional Entrance Examination (BOPEE) from the General Administrative Department (GAD).
The issue came to fore during a review-cum-introductory meeting chaired by Administrative Secretary to Government, ARI and Trainings Department Amit Sharma. The other officers who attended the meeting were Director Finance, additional secretaries of the ARI and training department.
As per the minutes of the meeting, the meeting discussed about the administrative control of ARI and training department on JKBOPEE.
The minutes of the meeting have revealed that the JK BOPEE was under the administrative control of ARI and trainings department till last few years.
“But in the past, an administrative secretary who was holding the charge of both General Administrative Department and ARI Trainings, shifted working, allocation of budget, from ARI and Trainings department to GAD for “convenience of working.”
The officials have informed the meeting that the same arrangement has been continuing till date.
“Accordingly, it was decided after due deliberations on the matter that it shall be taken-up with the Finance Department and GAD for the allocation of budget and shifting back administrative control of BOPEE from GAD to the ARI trainings Department,” read the minutes of the meeting.
The additional secretary has been also instructed to put-up a note in this behalf within next 10 days.
Notably, the BOPEE was setup in 2002 after a bill was passed in the J&K legislature.
Till 1987, all the selections for medical and engineering courses in J&K were made by a designated government department in the civil secretariat as an additional task assigned to the department.
However, the government constituted a fulltime examining body, Competent Authority Entrance Examinations in 1987 after witnessing an increase in the number of students appearing in entrance examinations.
Meanwhile, the administrative secretary has also expressed concern over the vacancies in the department and has directed the officials to take up the matter with GAD.
“An urgent request must be made to GAD for filling up the vacant positions in department and provisioning of requisite manpower, both at Gazetted as well as Non-Gazetted levels as per the requirement,” read the minutes.
The decision was taken considering the manifold increase in the workload of the department “due to high expectations of authorities.”
The administrative secretary has also directed the department that the timeline for addressing the issues of Mutual Migration of MBBS students need to be reassessed in light of the latest guidelines issued by the National Medical Commission.
“An initiative has to be taken towards its end-to-end digitisation, with NIL human interfaces, for making it fully transparent system using automation tools, with the usage of online tools, making it a swift, foolproof and auto-responsive system,” read the minutes of the meeting.