Senior bureaucrats and Govt officers of the different departments of Civil Secretariat and Assembly/Council Secretariat in Jammu and Kashmir have been robbing the library of General Administration Department (GAD) of its ‘treasure trove’.
Getting irked by their behaviour, the Omar Abdullah led coalition Government has now decided against processing pension papers of Government employees posted in the Civil Secretariat, even on short-term basis, unless production of the ‘No demand certificate’ (NDC) by them from the GAD (library).
Alarmed over the increasing number of books not being returned to the library Secretary, GAD MA Bukhari on December 31, 2013 issued a circular instructing the administrative secretaries to direct officers/officials under their direct control to return the books in a time-bound manner to the library.
Separate instructions have been passed on to the Drawing and Disbursing officers of the departments in the civil secretariat to ensure that the service books/lPC’s are issued to employees posted out on transfer after obtaining ‘No Demand Certificate’ from the GAD (library).
The GAD (library) in the civil secretariat is a treasure trove for book lovers. More than 12,000 rare books and large volumes of regular books are housed in the library. Some of the books available in the library are no longer in circulation in the open market. In the past similar orders were issued but due to poor implementation the officers did not care much to return the books.
The circular was issued by the secretary, GAD after it was revealed that the total number of books which have not be returned to the library is piling up gradually and if the trend remained unchecked the library would soon face shortage of quality books.
After going through the library records the caretakers of the library have found that the complaints are quite often being received against the officers of the Planning and Development department and the Finance Department in the civil secretariat.
Official sources in the GAD also maintained that books have been issued against the names of senior most officers in the civil secretariat but they have not returned the same despite repeated reminders. The junior employees, incharge of the library often shy away from taking tough action against the senior officers.