12 KAS officers among 182 officials deputed to Ladakh

In order to meet the shortage of manpower in newly created Union Territory of Ladakh, the Jammu and Kashmir administration has deputed 12 Kashmir Administrative Service officers among 182 officials to Ladakh since bifurcation of erstwhile state of J&K.

In reply to an RTI application seeking details of transfers from UT of J&K to Ladakh, the General Administration Department, J&K, has quoted several “transfer orders” which show that 182 employees have been deputed to Ladakh including 12 KAS officers.

“The deputation,” according to the GAD order, “shall be for a period of two years or till the final allocation is made in terms of section 89(2) of J&K Re-organization Act, 2019”.The officials transferred/deputed are from J&K’s Revenue Department, Disaster Management and Relief-Rehabilitation, Home Department, Civil Secretariat, Floriculture department, Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs department, Animal and Sheep Husbandry department, Department of Forest, Ecology and Environment, and Industries and Commerce Department, among others.

Earlier, Umang Narula, advisor to the Lt. Governor of Ladakh, in a letter had flagged the issue of staff shortage.“The UT of Ladakh is facing serious constraints of manpower at various levels. Some directorates and heads of departments are headless, which is adversely affecting the delivery of public services [in Ladakh],” reads the letter.The apportionment of assets, liabilities and posts of the erstwhile state, which was bifurcated into union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh last year, was notified by the Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha-led Jammu and Kashmir administration in November.Under the apportionment, an additional 325 gazetted and 3,000 additional non-gazetted posts from the overall strength of Jammu and Kashmir stand transferred to Ladakh.With regard to the apportionment of posts and manpower, the notification had said the detailed listing of posts transferred would be done by November 30.

“The allocation of employees between the UT of J&K and UT of Ladakh shall be made on the basis of the options given by them. If the number of employees opting for the UT of Ladakh is less than the number of posts transferred to the UT of Ladakh, all these employees shall be allocated to UT of Ladakh,” it had said.“For the remaining vacancies, the J&K lieutenant governor will allocate non-optees (sic), based on a suitable criterion evolved by the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.

“If the number of optees is more than the number of posts to be transferred to the UT of Ladakh, then the Lt Governor of J&K shall allocate optees (sic), based on a suitable criterion evolved by the UT of J&K. For identification of the additional posts to be transferred, officers of the UT of J&K and UT of Ladakh shall meet and finalise the list by November 25,” it had said.