The government’s decision to hand over the power to transfer and promote senior engineers to the respective departments has led to confusion, with officials stating that the move will further politicise appointments to top posts while affecting the execution of crucial development works.
For decades, promotions to the top posts of chief engineers, engineers-in-chief and secretaries were done by the department of personnel and administrative reforms (DPAR) under the Karnataka Government Allocation of Business Rules, 1977.
Officials believe such a system brought order to the postings of engineers whose service remains largely chaotic due to a lack of clarity on where they belong.
The PWD, which operates as the parent department, deputies engineers to several departments and takes care of their seniority lists.
The DPAR’s appointment to top posts, therefore, helped in avoiding friction between PWD, rural development and panchayat raj, major irrigation, water resources and other departments.
On November 30, the government amended the rules and left the appointments to the respective departments.
“This has been done without clarity on who will make appointments to the top posts in the departments or depute heads to agencies in highway improvement project or even managing directors to KBJNL and other bodies. As a result, engineers will spend a significant amount of time running between different departments rather than focusing on work,” a senior engineer told DH.
Engineers have also written to the chief secretary noting that cadre and recruitment rules in public works, irrigation and RDPR departments were different. They have urged the government to scrap the amendment.
Watch the latest DH Videos here:
Published 04 January 2022, 17:28 IST