Salary of 300 employees held up as transfer order said to be in violation of rules

Anantnag: Salaries of almost 300 employees of the Department of Health, here in Mattan block of Anantnag district, are held up since the Director of the department allegedly exceeded his authority in posting a new Block Medical Officer (BMO) at Mattan.
The Director, Dr Muhstaq Ahmad, on November 29 issued a joint transfer order of five doctors in different parts of the valley. Among the transferred lot was Dr Muhammad Ashraf Padder, serving as Medical Officer in Block Bijbehara.
Padder was transferred to Block Mattan, as in-charge Block Medical Officer (BMO), the post which is also the drawing and disbursing authority for the salaries of medical staff.
However, Treasury Officer Mattan refused to acknowledge the transfer order. He invoked an earlier government order wherein it was clearly mentioned that a gazetted officer can be only transferred by a Chief Secretary and/or administrative secretaries and not the Director of the department.
“The instant order (by the Director) does not only involve the transfer and posting but there is a matter of delegation of DDO powers as well,” the Treasury Officer Mattan has written in a letter to the higher-ups.
The Treasury Officer has insisted that the order by the Director needs to be submitted to the administrative department for decision. The refusal to acknowledge the Director’s order by the Treasury Officer has now left some 300 employees of the department without salary.
“There is one Sub-District Hospital, more than 10 PHCs, and some wellness centers running under the block Mattan. All of the employees are yet to receive their salary for November,” a source in the department told Kashmir Reader.
The sources said that hundreds of lower-rung employees, who live on a hand-to-mouth basis, have been left in limbo. “And for no fault of theirs,” the sources said.
Besides, there is widespread resentment in the block against this order by the Director, sources in the department revealed, given the fact that Padder has served as BMO Mattan earlier as well and the department had faced backlash for promoting him out of turn.
“He was removed from the post of BMO Mattan 3 years ago when media reports brought to light his out-of-turn promotion,” sources said. “The whole department knows he has again been made BMO Mattan just because he is the Director’s neighbour and a close aide.”
“We are not even taking into consideration how he has no work ethic, and how he meddles in the work of the most hard-working doctors in the block. It is a motivated order issued by the Director and for everyone’s sake, it should be revoked,” sources said.
Director Health, Dr Mushtaq Ahmad, maintained that he has the required administrative nod for the transfer order. “Yes, the salaries have been held up but they will soon be released,” he said.
Asked about the allegations of the doctor in question being incompetent and close to him, the Director said that he does not know much of it. “Things are being said because of internal squabbling. It was a regular transfer order and not motivated at all,” Dr Ahmad said, while acknowledging that the BMO was indeed his neighbour.

Suhail A Shah