Kozhikode: Kasargod is long considered the dump yard of erring officials from other districts as they would be punished and sent to the northern most district of the state. But many senior officials would bypass the transfer through what is called ‘working-arrangement’ and continue in their native places. This practice has an effect on the smooth functioning of the government offices in the district and public ire had poured out many times.
But it is not going to be so in the future, if the district development committee has its way. The district administration has decided to identify the officials and go after them. It has found that there are more than 25 such officials who have dodged working in the district including 16 officials from the commercial tax department, two each from excise, revenue, social justice offices and one each from gram panchayat and agriculture.
Besides, the post of secretary in 11 gram panchayats as well as 17 posts of assistant engineer are lying vacant in the district. “These posts cannot be filled the way we fill when officials go on deputation,” says Kasargod district planning officer K.M. Suresh. “Many district officer –level posts are vacant which impacts development programmes and results in the suffering of people.”
The issue was the subject of a hot discussion in the district development meeting held on Saturday and all the elected representatives were unanimous in ending the practice. “We have decided to bring back such officials who work in their home districts on working arrangement,” said district collector K. Jeevan Babu. “The long-pending issue would be brought to the notice of chief secretary also.”
The Prabhakaran commission which studied the backwardness of the district had proposed to put an end to this practice of working arrangement, said Manjeshwaram MLA P.B Abdul Razak. “The government has approved the commission report, making the working arrangement system illegal.” Thrikaripur MLA M. Rajagoplan pointed out that the absence of persons in key posts had resulted in the district losing out on several projects and funds to the tune of crores of rupees.
