Katra Municipal Committee headless; Employees work without salary

Katra Municipal Committee headless
Archit Watts
Tribune News Service

Katra, June 19
Katra, which is the base camp of the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine, is without an Executive officer of the Municipal Committee and employees have not been paid salaries for the past three months.

It is one of the highest earning committees in the state.

Residents here do not know why the Local Bodies Department shifted the then Executive Officer, Ravi Sharma, in the last month of the previous financial year. Another officer who was appointed in his place also retired on March 31 and since then, the committee has been headless.

“This important post has been lying vacant since more than three months, but the government has taken no steps to fill it,” said MLA, Katra, Baldev Raj Sharma.

Sharma added, “Thousands of devotees daily visit the place, but due to the non-serious approach of the government towards this holy town, the pilgrims are facing a lot of inconvenience”.

In the absence of any E.O, the sweepers had earlier threatened to go on a strike if their salaries were not paid in a week.

However, the government in order to pacify the employees paid them the salary for one month. Other employees, including engineers, clerks, stenos, and peons have also been waiting for their salaries for three months.

SC Bhagat, Director, Department of Local Bodies, said: “We have written to the higher officials to immediately fill the post because the employees are not getting their salaries, which is causing resentment among them”.

Bhagat added that he had also written to the commissioner- secretary and the principal secretary, to immediately release the salaries of all the employees and hoped that they would get the dues within a week.

“So far we have given the additional charge to the deputy director of our department, but the vacant post will be filled by a KAS rank officer shortly”, he added.

Courtesy: The Tribune