GUWAHATI: A transfer notification of Assam government on 7th March 2019 has raised plenty of eyebrows as the transfer process of the erstwhile designated chief engineer (in-charge) of Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), Debajit Das, being appointed as the new chief engineer of Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) is being termed as “illegal” as it has allegedly been done without following the prescribed criterion.
An ACS officer who used to work with GMDA in 2016-17 (and is now posted elsewhere), talking to G Plus, under the condition of anonymity said, “As per GMDA Act, the criterion to become a chief engineer of GMDA requires an engineer to be from the Public Works Department (PWD). He/she should not be holding a rank less than the rank of a superintendent engineer (SE). Das apparently does not satisfy this criterion. He was an ex-cadre executive engineer. His posting at GMDA itself was illegal which was subsequently declared in a verdict of Gauhati High Court.”
He further revealed that now he has been transferred as the chief engineer of GMC and even this transfer is illegal as the post of the chief engineer of GMC, according to GMC Act 1969, is equivalent to the post of superintendent engineer (SE). “How he has been appointed to this post is known only the Guwahati Development Department (GDD),” said the officer.
Notably, Siddhartha Bhattacharya has been the GDD minister since last year.
Some of the PWD engineers suspect the transfer to be a political move as, according to one assistant engineer, Debajit Das is politically well-connected. Das joined PWD in 1996.
An assistant engineer who is senior to Das in PWD, talking to G Plus under condition of anonymity said, “Das got promoted as assistant executive engineer (AEE) in 2001. After 3 years he became executive engineer. Then again even while 3 years had not passed, he became superintendent engineer.” The assistant engineer also said that after his regular “out-of-turn” promotions because of various nexuses in PWD, other engineers challenged his promotion before the court. Das then got demoted and now he is an executive engineer ex-cadre, the assistant engineer said.
He also revealed that Das was very close to IAS officer MGVK Bhanu who was then an influential bureaucrat during the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government in the state. Now retired, Bhanu has joined the Congress party and is contesting the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Tezpur on the party’s ticket.
In 2016, after Das’s demotion, a sudden shift was noticed as he was sent to GMDA as in-charge chief engineer, which was alleged to be an illegal process of appointment.
The PWD AE expressed that after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) formed the government in Assam, Das became close to the BJP politicians. He is close to Suman Haripriya, the Hajo Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and through her he might have reached out to the present GDD minister, the AE said.
Das has not yet joined the GMC as the chief engineer but his appointment both in GMDA in 2016 and in GMC now has raised questions regarding the entire promotion and transfer process of the government.
PWD’s engineer promotion process revolving around scams?
The promotion process of the engineers in the Public Works Department (PWD) of the government of Assam is being questioned by many junior level engineers working in the department.
A source in the department who has been working with the PWD as an assistant engineer for the last 18 years said, “There is a huge promotion scam going on in the department till now which is continuing since many years.”
Talking to G Plus under conditions of anonymity, the source alleged that in the past there was a well connected engineer working in a senior position who manipulated the entire promotion process in the year 2003.
According to him, with the help of a notification, the Assam Engineering (PWD) Amended Service Rule, 1983 was amended in 2003. With the amendment the promotion policy also changed.
The promotion process depends on the performance marks awarded to each particular employee in his or her respective annual confidential report (ACR) which is reviewed every five years.
The performance is calculated according to the grading given by the reporting officer. If it is below average, it is calculated as 0 point. For average its 1 point, good is 2 points, very good is 3 points and outstanding is 4 points.
There is also 0.22 points given for seniority every year. So, in five years, an engineer earns 1.1 points for seniority.
But according to the amended rule, for promotion from assistant engineer to assistant executive engineer, an engineer requires 19.1 points and above for A-class promotion. For B-class promotion the requirement is 7.1 points to below 19.1 points.
The source alleged that many junior officers, using their good connections and relations with the senior officers, keep getting outstanding in the ACR every year.
G Plus had reported the issue in April 2018 when Parimal Suklabaidya was the PWD minister, but even now the sources in PWD revealed that there has been no noticeable change.
Well-connected engineers directly get 20 points and get promoted superseding a huge number of engineers who are senior to them in terms of years of service.
It is also being alleged that after five years, the ACRs are made available to the employees who are well-connected, through a nexus in Dispur. The engineers then improve the grading by bribing the concerned reporting officers for a better grade.
The source said, “Like the casting couch in Bollywood, ‘promotion couch’ exists in PWD as many female engineers keep getting promotions frequently because of their ‘outstanding’ points.”
Some engineers had earlier also filed an RTI in the directorate of printing & stationary to get the copy of the notification (No Con 5/2003/50 dated 28/04/2003) but the directorate replied that it was not able to trace the notification.
Federation of Engineering Service Association of Assam (FESAA) had also written to the chief minister in 2016 stating that PWD engineers are demoralised due to systematic deprivation of their legitimate promotional avenues for the last 13 years.
Sadly, many competent officers of PWD have had to retire at the entry level post without promotion.
