Srinagar, Oct 17: The SICOP Employees’ Union has challenged the classification of pre-ban employees as “surplus staff”, claiming that the categorisation overlooks 297 vacant posts and runs contrary to a High Court directive on considering their regularisation.
In a press release issued here, the union accused the SICOP management of misleading the Legislative Assembly and Deputy Chief Minister, who is also the chairman of the corporation’s Board of Directors, over the status of its employees.
The union said employees appointed before the imposition of the government ban, whose appointments were cleared through the 83rd and 84th Board of Directors resolutions, had been clubbed with separate batches engaged during subsequent post-ban periods.
It termed the blanket classification of these employees as surplus administratively distorted and legally untenable, arguing that their long service records and the availability of sanctioned vacancies had not been adequately considered.
Citing an official file under consideration in the Civil Secretariat, SICOP Employees’ Union president Bilal Ahmad Bhat in a press statement said the management had documented 297 clear vacant posts. He said senior employees had been rendering services against these vacancies for periods ranging from 10 to 20 years.
The union also referred to a recent judgment of the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, stating that the court had recognised the service records of pre-ban employees and directed the authorities to consider their regularisation, along with consequential benefits, within three months.
Bhat urged the Deputy Chief Minister to take cognisance of the matter, reject what the union described as a flawed management report, and expedite the regularisation file pending in the Civil Secretariat in compliance with the law.
The union said the surplus classification had triggered unrest and financial insecurity among hundreds of employees’ families.
