JAMMU: The J&K Power Employees and Engineers Coordination Committee (JKPEECC) has urged upon the Lt Governor and the Chief Secretary of the J&K to restore the salary of the PDD employees through PAYSYS in budget.
Addressing a joint press conference Sachin Tickoo, convenor PEECC and general secretary JKEEGA, Jaipal Sharma, president Diploma Engineers Association, Ajaz Kazmi and Sanjeev Bali of PPEU, Balbir Singh of Draftsman Association, Anil Slathia of Lineman and Workers Association, Jasbir Singh of ITI Employees, HD Singh of TEF, Tarun Gupta of PEU and Kulbir Singh from EEU appealed to the J&K UT Administration to address this grievances of the PDD employees. Sachin Tickoo highlighted the hardships faced by 30,000 employees of PDD on account of delay in disbursal of salaries due to routing of salary through Grant in Aid mode ever since the Corporations have come into existence.
The members highlighted that Government had notified transfer scheme vide SO- 109 Dated: March 20, 2020 governing the unbundling of the JKPDD into Corporations and protecting the interests of employees of PDD on deputation to these Corporations. The clause 7(15) of above referred transfer scheme SO-109 states that the liability on account of the monthly salary, allowances, etc. will be provided by the Government for which necessary provision shall be kept in annual budget. However, at present salary of the staff is met out of “Grant-in-Aid” from Government instead of routing the salary component through’ Pay Sys system ‘ and same is being regulated on advance drawal basis at Secretariat level.
This has led to considerable delay in the disbursement of monthly salaries/leave salary on account of the cumbersome procedure of furnishing of utilization certificates against advance drawal from the respective corporations including the salary component. The Grant- in- Aid system is generally applicable to those Corporations which are already revenue surplus and can meet salary expenditure on their own. The salary component of the revenue expenditure already earmarked in the Budget estimates 2021-22 should be delinked from Grant in Aid and routed through PAYSYS, since the utilization certificate should not be a pre-requisite for disbursement of funds for salaries of employees borne on the sanctioned strength of Government.
The utilization certificate can be asked for other revenue expenditure portion of the Budget which includes power purchase billing. The PAY-SYS provides real time monitoring of the funds allocated in the various heads to the departments and it will automatically waive off the need for utilization certificate. It is unfortunate that despite the provisioning of funds, the procedure of disbursement and delay involved is causing unrest among the employees.
Jaipal Sharma demanded that the PDD daily wagers whose DPCs have been conducted since 2018 and onwards, be regularized and their cases in GAD should be expedited.
