Its Adhocism galore in the Uttarakhand Public Works Department (PWD) as majority of top positions are being held by officiating officers in absence of regular ones. To remove this discrepancy the department is banking on Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) by which appropriate officers could be adjusted in regular positions.
There are eight sanctioned posts of Chief Engineer level II, in the department, out of which six positions are being held by officiating officers who actually are Superintending Engineers (SE).
Similarly out of 33 posts of SEs 23 positions are being manned by junior officers belonging to the cadre of Executive Engineers (EE).
The majority of the posts of EEs who actually form the backbone of the department which is responsible for maintaining the infrastructure of State are being held by the officiating Assistant Engineers (AE). The departmental data suggests that 66 AEs are officiating in the higher capacity of EEs and are holding key positions in various divisions of the department.
To add to the woes of the department 126 posts of AEs are also lying vacant.
The State Government corrected a serious discrepancy in the hierarchy of the department recently when it appointed HK Upreti in the position of Engineer in Chief (EnC).
The position previously was being held by lalit Mohan who despite being junior to Upreti and some other Chief Engineers was discharging duties as Officiating Engineer in Chief. Departmental sources attribute the discrepancy to the flawed promotion policy adopted in the year 2007. To avoid controversy after the recent DPC the State Government shifted lalit Mohan from the department and attached him with the Government. After this DPC lokesh Sharma and GS Bansal were promoted as Chief Engineer level I.
The Engineer in Chief of PWD, HK Upreti told
The Pioneer that the process of DPC for the various positions of department is in progress and soon the problem of officiating officers would be solved. He informed that to fill the vacant posts of the Assistant Engineers in the department the requisition is send to Public Service Commission.