Missing from duty: Officials ‘rewarded’ with promotions

It happens only in Delhi! Three government officials, who have been missing from work for the past few years, have been given promotions.

It happens only in Delhi! Three government officials, who have been missing from work for the past few years, have been given promotions.

HT Image

The department of social welfare of the Delhi government went ahead with declaring a list of 26 welfare/probation officers and nine supervisors for the post of superintendents and child development project officers (CDPO).

The order for the promotion, albeit “purely on ad-hoc basis with immediate effect for a period of six months” was issued last month.

Among other candidates who have been promoted, the list mentions names of Arti S Vachhar, Puja T Sharma and Baldev Singh Gulati.

Documents available with the Hindustan Times show that the three officials have been missing since 2002, 2003 and 2006 respectively, and still figure in the list of promotions.

Vachhar’s resignation was accepted by the then director (social welfare) in June 2002. Sharma was granted leave in 2003 for going to Canada and has not returned for work since then.

Three days after HT raised a query with the department, it issued a public notice in a newspaper giving the officer a final chance to present her side.

The third official, Gulati has not been attending office since January 2006.

Tapan Mandal, department’s secretary, did not elaborate much on the issue, saying that he has recently taken over the charge. But when his attention was drawn to ask if it was a coincident that a notice was published after the Hindustan Times raised the query, Mandal said, “It (the list of promotion) is a lapse on part of the officer concerned. It will
be taken care of.”