Jammu September 03 : To remain in the good books of top echelon, one has to learn the art of sycophancy or must maintain good connections with the political bosses and influential people. But, the humble man Ravi Shankar failed the criteria and selectively faced by the wrath of administration.
Shankar, who is junior Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (JKAS) and posted as Tehsildar Jammu (Khas), on last Sunday suspended for dereliction of duties involving disobedience and very poor performance in the issuance of domicile certificates to applicants. The decision of government was criticized by netizens and they called it humiliation to an honest and dedicated officer.
“He is an honest and hardworking officer, his suspension must be the outcome of some conspiracy. We demand revocation of his suspension order with immediate effect,” wrote advocate Praveen Choudhary on Facebook.
“Shame on the administration for this is the reward of honesty and hard work. I stand with Jammu tehsildar Ravi Shankar. Revoke this order,” posted Dr Gemini Sharma, another Facebook user. Netizen Dr Surjeet Singh Shan wrote, “Indeed a dedicated, hardworking and honest officer,” posted.
“This is sheer nonsense on the part of administration…..The reward of hard work and dedication is humiliation and transfers,” posted Divya Sharma, while another user Rajinder Singh Manhas said, “We condemn this draconian order…I wonder if he was just made a scapegoat…Administration should rethink this.”
Revenue Secretary Dr Pawan Kotwal cited pendency of 73,000 domicile certificate applications with the civil servant. He said, “Pendency of domicile certificates here was far more than in other tehsils. I am not raising any query on the integrity of the official and he will be given full opportunity to explain his position, but his performance was being watched for the past six to seven months.”
Justifying the suspension order, he further said “The Lt Governor had taken a strong exception to the massive pendency of applications in Jammu Khas tehsil during a review meeting and sought reasons from the district commissioner. All that the official had to do was to see the documents and issue domicile certificates.”
But, the Revenue Secretary failed to elaborate on the state of pendency in other tehsils of Jammu and Kashmir and to explain on what parameters Ravi Shankar was being watched. It seemed Ravi Shankar was the only officer holding back the issuance of Domicile Certificates whereas all other Tehsildars were promptly issued the certificates. It may be stated here that Ravi Shankar had been performing other duties of reportage and rescue during the recent floods, supervising Covid-targeted testing and routine tehsildar work before sitting in office till late hours every night to issue domicile certificates.
On average, he was issuing around 400 to 450 domicile certificates every day and in the past 45 days, he cleared around 14,000 certificates. Jammu Khas is the most populated tehsils of the district and number of applicants here are far more than other tehsils. But, the administration utterly failed to address the issues of people and found a scapegoat in Ravi Shankar.
(TEN)
