Srinagar: The 172 Community Information Centre (CIC) operators working in Rural Development Department (RDD) of J&K have sought intervention of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on RDD for their regularisation and hike in their salary.
In a memorandum submitted to Chairperson Parliamentary Standing Committee, Prataprao Jadhav, the CIC operators said that they were continuously working in RDD on contractual basis since 2004.
“All the codal formalities for our regularisation have been completed by the J&K government but unfortunately the regularisation orders are not issued for unknown reasons,” the memorandum reads.
The CIC operators also lamented that they were paid only Rs 10,000 per month and no hike was given in their salary since their appointment in the department.
“We are facing a lot of hardships to feed our families and also not able to provide proper education and care to our children due to lack of resources,” the CIC operators said in a memorandum.
The CIC operators were appointed in 2014 on merit basis through proper recruitment procedure by the District Level Committees constituted by the J&K government headed by Deputy Commissioners of the concerned districts.
“We are all highly qualified having MCA, MSc IT, BE, B Tech and M Tech degrees and are technically very sound. We are handling online work web portals of the Ministry of RDD and Panchayati Raj and other e-Governance related activities,” it reads.
Besides, the CIC operators handle other office assignments like elections, establishment, accounts and developmental works at block, district, directorate and secretariat level.
The operators said that the then J&K cabinet in 2014 passed a decision for regularisation of CIC operators following which 172 posts of data entry operators were created in RDD through a cabinet decision in 2016 for regularisation of CIC operators vide government Order No 320-RD and PR of 2016.
“The then government received concurrence from the Finance department twice for the regularisation of the CIC operators but the process was shelved for unknown reasons,” the CIC operators said.
They said that the regularisation of 172 CIC operators was cleared by the then Empowered Committee of the Finance Department J&K in its 58th and 60th meetings convened in 2016 and 2017.
“Recommendations were also given by the Finance department in December 2017 for issuance of regularisation orders to RDD in favour of 172 CIC operators. Legal opinion was sought from the Advocate General J&K and Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs of J&K for regularisation of 172 CIC operators,” a distressed CIC operator said.
In 2016, J&K government through its cabinet decision created 172 data entry operators for regularisation of services of 172 CIC operators, they said.
“The recommendations have been also communicated to the Department of RDD and PR by the Finance department J&K for issuing regularisation orders as data entry operators,” the CIC operators said.
The CIC operators also said that the Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Department J&K besides the Advocate General of J&K gave their consent for regularisation of 172 CIC operators.
“Unfortunately, the formal regularisation orders of our services are yet to be issued,” an operator said.
The distressed operators urged the Chairperson Parliamentary Standing Committee for his personal intervention and take up the matter with Lieutenant Governor and concerned authorities for the issuance of formal regularisation orders.
“We are not able to make ends meet and are living a miserable life under the present circumstances on a meagre amount of Rs 10,000 per month,” they said.