Special Correspondent, Agartala, Duranta TV:
A glaring and unprecedented instance of depriving lower-level employees by crushing them under the grinding wheels of government regulations has come to light from the corridors of the Mahakaran. Long 7 months ago, the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) had given the green signal to promote 13 Tahsildars working across the state to the post of Revenue Inspector (RI). Following the rules, positive reports had also been submitted by the District Magistrates (DMs) of all districts. However, it is alleged that caught in the red tape of top bureaucrat Pradeep Kumar Chakraborty’s department, that promotion file has mysteriously gone ‘missing’! Even after 7 months, the final promotion order has not been issued till date.
To know the current status of this file, the investigative team of Duronto TV contacted another high-ranking official of the department, C.K. Malsom. Astonishingly, he too failed to provide any accurate information regarding this file; rather, he inversely tasked the Duronto TV representative team with finding the file themselves! He directly washed his hands of the matter, stating he knew nothing about the file, which has completely exposed the extreme negligence and lack of coordination within the administration. On the other hand, when Duronto TV contacted various District Magistrates (DMs) regarding updates on the file of these Tahsildars, they all clearly acknowledged sending reports in favor of the promotion.
Due to this extreme apathy and bureaucratic red tape, the employees have already faced massive social and financial losses. Even before receiving the promotion benefits, Jiban Rudra Pal, one of the deprived employees on this list, retired empty-handed just a few days ago. The resentment does not end here; it has been learned that within the next two months, two more officials on this list will similarly retire without receiving even a single penny of their promotion benefits.
Documents state that the final recommendation or Annexure-A for promotion was prepared only after verifying the ACR grading, DP/Vigilance clearance, and Integrity reports of the respective employees. Employees are bursting with anger over the file being stalled despite everything being perfectly in order. The direct allegation of the deprived employees is that even after retirement, P.K. Chakraborty himself proudly enjoys all high-level government facilities, including cars and quarters, but his procrastination and dilly-dallying when it comes to granting lower-level employees their legitimate rights cannot be tolerated under any circumstances.
The 13 deprived officials who received the final recommendation from the departmental committee and became victims of extreme discrimination are, respectively—Nawaj Sarif, Sankar Ch. Sarkar, Partha Chakraborty – 1, Jiban Rudra Pal (who has already retired without promotion), Partha Chakraborty – 2, Sithil Chandra Nath (PH), Shibu Ranjan Das, Tamal Das, Biplab Malakar, Gopal Sabdakar, Tentu Choudhury, Prakash Kr. Meska, and Ranju Debbarma.
Various employee organizations have started pointing fingers directly at the recruitment department against this stepmotherly treatment by the administration and such irresponsible hide-and-seek by officials over the file. According to informed sources, if the promotion orders for the RI posts of these 13 Tahsildars are not issued immediately, the aggrieved employee organizations will be forced to take the path of a larger state-wide movement, including the gherao of Mahakaran.