Exclusive: 29k 'Ghosts Employees' On J&K Govt’s Payroll

By Naseer Ganai / Srinagar

The Jammu and Kashmir government has no clue about 29,000 state employees. It doesn’t know who recruited them, what their names are and how various departments have been paying them. For the past year, the government has been seeking information about these ‘ ghost’ employees from various departments which, however, have not furnished details yet. This was disclosed by state finance minister Abdul Rahim Rather during a discussion in the Legislative Council.
Rather said various government departments have engaged 29,000 employees upon the recommendations of senior officers, retired officers and legislators. “ We are seeking their information from the concerned departments. We also want to know who recruited them,” he said.

Employee unions, however, are urging the state government to regu- larise these employees who have been reportedly engaged by various departments on a need basis since 2002. But the government has taken a firm stance, claiming their regularisation would cause huge burden on the state exchequer.

The state finance minister said as many as 180 people have been recruited by a staterun hospital which is using the hospital development funds to pay their salaries. “ If we regularise them, the hospital development fund will have to be spent on their salaries,” Rather said.

Nearly 7,000 ‘ ghost’ employees are working in the Public Health Engineering department alone. In departments such as roads and building and power development, thousands of such employees are working.

The Consumer Affairs Department officials have engaged hundreds of sweepers over the years.

These sweepers, according to Minister of Consumer Affairs Chaudhry Ramzan, have been given the charge of stores also.

Ramzan contended that lack of staff forced him to give the charge of stores of the ration depots to these employees.

In some cases, Rather said, MLAs were found to have written to various departments urging them to consider the applications of unemployed youth.

The finance minister said the government would take action against the erring officials who had recruited these 29,000 employees over the years. However, he has not specified what action will be taken against them. “It is a serious issue. I will discuss it with my cabinet colleagues,” he said.

In March 2012, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had confessed in the state Assembly that the government was not able to provide employment to youth beyond a certain level.