In an ideal state, the transfer policy of government should be equally applicable to all the employees but since we live in J&K which is far from perfect, the leaders of employee unions across government departments are exempted from this policy. Majority of these leaders have been posted at offices in twin capital cities or at district headquarters consistently and successive governments didn’t bother to send them to rural or far-flung areas.
The current administration has made relaxations in its earlier order and sent instructions to the administrative secretaries to make transfers till 31st of January. There are many employees Unions in every department of government with some Unions having members across various government departments and consequently being very large in membership. Most of these Unions are not democratic and some employees who played a major role in their constitution hold important positions in these Unions.
One thing which could be commonly noticed among all these Unions is that people holding important portfolios in these Unions such as President, Vice President and some others somehow managed to maintain their post at capital or district headquarters consistently, which is in total violation of the transfer policy.
A senior official of department asked that how is it possible that under so many state governments, the main office bearers of these employee Unions were not transferred as per the policies. He said that these Union leaders have links with the political party in power and demand government’s support in return of their allegiance to them.
Another official asked that if transfer policy compels the government to transfer an employee to Rural areas for two years and in Urban areas for three years, then why these Union leaders don’t get posted in remote areas.
The J&K administration led by LG Manoj Sinha should seriously consider the problem and instruct the concerned officials to scrutinize these Union leaders of tenure of stay in urban areas. Every employee should be made to follow transfer policy whether one is a normal employee or President of a Union.