Governor chairs 5th SAC meeting

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.

The SAC deliberated upon the various proposals submitted by Administrative departments for its consideration and approval.

Interviews for Class-IV Posts abolished

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 SAC decision will speed-up the selection process against these posts which takes considerable time in the present scenario.

Enhancement of FTA to VLWs/MPWs

The SAC 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.

27 officers inducted into KAS

The SAC 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.