The step taken by the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah to end the practice of attachments will go a long way in making functioning of the government departments efficient besides removing the inferiority complex among the disgruntled employees who never get this opportunity for not being the blue-eyed government employees.
Reportedly, the CM has given standing directions to impose a complete ban on re-employment, extensions, additional charges, and attachments, except in extraordinary circumstances.
It is pertinent to mention that employees, particularly those in higher positions and having close links with the people helming the affairs of the UT are often attached to the headquarters or other preferred and plum postings, avoiding remote and less desirable areas where their presence was essential. This undermined the objective of efficient governance and service delivery in the far-flung areas of the region therefore the direction by the CM in this regard must have rekindled the hopes of many living in remote hamlets that from now onwards things would be delivered at their doorsteps without any hindrance.
Attachment is a practice where government employees are temporarily assigned to positions or locations that are different from their official postings, often at the request or discretion of higher authorities. While the intention of such assignments is to address specific administrative needs, this practice has often been misused as a tool by ‘elite’ government employees to avoid far-off or inconvenient postings. These employees may prefer staying at the headquarters or other urban centers, bypassing assignments to remote or challenging areas that could be crucial to governance and public service delivery.
As this is a very old problem and many a times before also such directions have been issued but in the end things remained as they were and what is to be seen in this case is whether the Omar Abdullah Government can withstand the political pressure because this order is bound to face pressure from different directions as those ‘enjoying’ attachments seem to be very close to higher up lobby and they will leave no stone unturned to rescind this order and revoke status quo in the case of attachments.
There is no doubt in the fact that the aforesaid ban represented an important step toward restructuring the functioning of the government and promoting a more equitable distribution of administrative resources but what is to be seen is the implementation part, which is the most difficult issue in this whole gamut, and to see the end result people would have to keep their fingers crossed for some more days as things will start unfolding.
