GO on appointment to Revenue Dept challenged
15 Feb, 2010
KOCHI: The decision by the State Government to consider districts as the appointing units in the case of officials of the Revenue Department, quashing the government orders which were in place for more than one-and-half decades, has kicked up a row with around 2,000 officials challenging it. As per the order, these officials will lose their seniority before assuming charge in the districts where they are currently working.It was for avoiding petitions in courts regarding the transfers and promotions in the Revenue Department that the government issued a special rule in 1985 to integrate village establishments and revenue establishments.As a follow-up action, in 1993 the government amended the special rule so as to consider the state as the recruiting unit for appointments in the Revenue Department in the state. The government had obtained approval from the Kerala Public Service Commission(KPSC) for making such an amendment in 1990. Since then, seniority of the officials of the Revenue Department are being fixed on the basis of the date on which the PSC issues the advice-note to join the service. “But, after around oneand- half decades, the government is now backtracking on its own decision without a valid reason.This will result in around 2,000 officials losing seniority in the department,” a Revenue Department official said. “Moreover, the government order dated October 29, 2009, is against the affidavits the government filed before the Court in 2005 and 2007,” he said.In 2005 and 2007, the government had filed affidavits stating that the state was the appointing unit as far as appointments to the Revenue Department was concerned.According to the latest government order issued on October 29 last year, the appointment unit is the district. The reason cited by the government for fixing district as the unit of appointment was that appointments to the Revenue Department were made by the district collector. But a government order issued earlier showed that it was the Land Revenue Board secretary who was in charge of the appointments as well as for taking decisions on the seniority of employees.However, now the official has delegated the power to appoint employees and fix the grades to district collectors.
Courtesy: expressbuzz.com
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