Days after 11 employees were terminated for their alleged “anti-national activities”, the J&K administration on Friday asked the top officials to identify “ineffective” employees above the age of 48 years in the Union Territory (UT).
“All the Administrative Secretaries are impressed upon to initiate the exercise of reviewing the performance of each government servant who has completed 48 years of age or has 22 years of service, for identifying those who are ineffective in work and are not fit to continue in their post and have no utility for the purpose for which they are employed,” J&K Chief Secretary, Arun Kumar Mehta, said, in an order.
This is the first time in J&K that all the employees above the age of 48 have come under the administration’s scanner.
“The government departments shall follow the procedure as laid down in Article 226(2) of J&K Civil Services Regulations and place the cases of such employees before the review committee for consideration of the competent authority,” the order said.
The J&K government in October 2020 had for the first time issued orders to identify the ineffective employees. “It has been observed that the departments have not initiated any exercise for reviewing the performance of the government servants,” it added.
Earlier this year, the J&K government in April constituted a Special Task Force (STF) for identifying and scrutinising the government employees who are involved in any cases related to posing threat to the country's security or anti-national activities.
The STF has so far identified around 20 cases, who have been terminated from the services under amended Article 311 of the Constitution of India, which requires no official inquiry before terminating the employees. The termination could be based on the police or an official report and should be satisfactory enough for the Lieutenant Governor to take a final call.
Eleven employees, including Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin's sons, were dismissed from service this month. The process of termination was started with a government teacher, in May this year. Idrees Jan, a teacher at the Government Middle School, Kralpora in Kupwara, was fired after the police records suggested that he was a supporter of Syed Ali Shah Geelani's Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH).
Scores of employees’ unions in J&K had actively raised public issues prior to August 5, 2019, when the Centre ended J&K’s special constitutional position. These unions also organised protests on issues in the Kashmir Valley and agitated over many political decisions. However, after the stringent orders passed by the Lieutenant Governor’s administration pertaining to employees, the activism of these unions has come to a halt.
