SRINAGAR, JULY 17: Governor, N N Vohra on Tuesday chaired the 5th meeting of the State Administrative Council (SAC) at Raj Bhavan.
Advisors to the Governor, B B Vyas, Vijay Kumar and Khurshid Ahmad Ganai besides Chief Secretary, B V R Subrahmanyam attended the meeting, an official statement said.
The SAC deliberated upon the various proposals submitted by Administrative departments for its consideration and approval.
In a decision with far-reaching consequences, the State Administrative Council (SAC) abolished interviews for all Class IV posts in the State. This comes into effect immediately except for those posts for which selection process has already been initiated.
In future, all recruitment for Class IV posts under State, Divisional and District Cadres and also for Companies, Organizations and Bodies substantially owned or controlled by the Government, will be done through the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board (JK SSB). The General Administration Department will pool all the Class IV vacancies available in different Departments in the State at all levels and refer these to SSB. The SSB will draw-up a fixed Annual Calendar to ensure time bound selection against Class IV posts. The selection will be made based on merit secured in the written examination up to the level equivalent to the 10th standard.
“This decision will be implemented through an SRO notification and will be a horizontal cross-cutting decision applicable to all existing Recruitment Rules of all departments/agencies. This decision will ensure transparency, fairness, accountability and equitable opportunities of employment to aspiring youth of Jammu and Kashmir at this level,” the statement said.
The SAC decision will speed-up the selection process against these posts which takes considerable time in the present scenario, said the statement.
The SAC also approved enhancement of Fixed Traveling Allowance (FTA) from existing limit of Rs 15 to Rs 100 per month in favor of Village Level Workers (VLWS’s) / Multipurpose Workers (MPWs) working with the Rural Development Department.
The VLWs/MPWs visit the field for monitoring the works undertaken in the Panchayats, facilitate Panchayat meetings, supervise the assets of Panchayats and also verify the muster sheets of different works and hence are involved in extensive touring within their jurisdiction. VLWs were entitled for FTA at the rate of Rs 15 monthly and this had not been revised since 1978. The VLWs/MPWs had time and again represented before the Government for enhancement of FTA.
The decision of the SAC to enhance the FTA will benefit as many as 3314 VLWs/MPWs across the state.
The SAC also accorded sanction to the promotion of 27 officers of the J&K Excise & Taxation (Gazetted) Service to the Time Scale of the J&K Administrative Service in the Pay Band of Rs 15600-3900 with GP of Rs 6600.
The State Administrative Council also approved the revised DPR of the Ujh Multipurpose Project costing Rs.4750 crores. The project on completion will generate 186 MW of electricity and irrigate around 31,380 hectares of land in Kathua District.
In the revised DPR, the height of the reservoir in the Dam has been reduced, as a result of which the area under submergence has reduced from 41 sq km to 34.5 sq km i.e. reduction of about 7 sq km, with the likely population to be affected by submergence coming down by about 3000 people i.e from 11498 to 8684 souls.
The Government of India will be funding the project in the ratio of 90:10. The State will provide Rs. 475 crores as its share. The Relief and Rehabilitation (R&R) plan for the Project Affected Families (PAFs) will be on the lines of the Kishanganga Hydroelectric Project.
The Ujh Multipurpose Project has been a long pending demand of the people of the State and the completion of this Project within a period of three years will ensure assured irrigation to a vast area of 31,000 hectares, thereby, changing the agricultural as also the power scenario in the region. With this project, the socio-economic development of the region will receive a big boost.
