Jammu: A day after, Tehsildar Jammu Khas, Ravi Shankar, KAS was placed under suspension by the J&K Government as per the orders issued by the Revenue Department, the KAS fraternity especially the Young KAS officers have shown a deep anguish and resentment over such action taken by the government. The order mentions the reasons of suspension that the officer had shown disobedience while performing duties and had also shown laziness in issuing the domicile certificates.
The government has ordered an enquiry to be conducted by the Deputy Commissioner, Jammu into the matter who was the immediate controlling officer of the Tehsildar.
The KAS fraternity while condemning the suspension of the young officer has urged the Government to reconsider its decision and reinstate the officer at the earliest.
The officers of the fraternity in their statement said that though there has been some pendency on part of the suspended officer in issuing the domicile certificate through online portal, however, the officer has made good efforts in the issuing process and was able to issue a thousand of online certificates which is equivalent to the rate of issuance of certificates by other issuing authorities i.e. Tehsildars. Further, Tehsildar Jammu Khas has issued around 15 thousand domicile certificate through offline/ manual mode which is almost the highest by any Tehsildar.
They further stated that Tehsildar remains involved in revenue related matters, magisterial/ law and order duties and presently due to emergent Covid situation the Tehsildars especially at Headquarters and in city areas had remained most often busy with it. Regarding Mr. Ravi Shankar, the officer has performed his duties with great Honesty, dedication, hardwork and result oriented especially while dealing with law & order, encroachments etc. The officer had gone through a very tough times during the covid -19 situation being posted in the heart of Jammu city which otherwise remains packed with lots of public issues.
Regarding the online portal for issuance of domicile Certificates, it is a matter of fact that the portal is not working so properly in whole UT due to less internet speed. The Tehsildars are not able to approve/ issue more to than 80-100 online certificates per day if they devote their whole time a day. Tehsil Jammu Khas had recieved more than 70 thousand online applications and more than twenty thousand offline from last two months and how come it is possible for the Tehsildar to deal with such a huge rush of application while he had remained on toes performing covid 19 duties and other essential/ protocol duties at Jammu Headquarters. Keeping this all in consideration the officer has still issued certificates which is higher in issuance rate of other Tehsils. Furthermore, Mr. Ravi Shankar had been appreciated many a times on different platforms for his hardwork, dedication and personal pains while performing duties especially the recent episode of cremation of covid patient where the officer tackled the law and order situation so beautifully which was appreciated by larger masses of the UT.
The fraternity members has termed the order of suspension as a harsh treatment for young and hardworking officers like Mr Ravi Shankar and they had shown apprehension that this action by government will put a negative impact on working of other officers and hamper the public deliverance mechanism. The suspension has also given bad impression among the public that officers working throughout the clock for their welfare get such wrong treatment by the current regime in the UT.
The KAS officers fraternity have urged the Lieutenant governor and the Chief secretary to reconsider the decision of suspension and reinstate the officer at the earliest which would be in larger interest of the public and the fraternity members as well as working of other departments in whole UT. They further requested the UT authorities to consider the efforts put in by young officers like Mr Ravi Shankar before taking such decisions in future.
Jammu and Kashmir government today announced seven-day (31-08-2020 to 6-09-2020) mourning as a mark of respect to Former President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee who passed away today on 31st August 2020.
The National flag shall fly at half-mast during the mourning period on all buildings and places throughout the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir where it is flown regularly and there will be no official entertainment.
