Department dead, but transfers are alive in Karnataka

This appears to be a classic case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing – a feature that never fails to characterise the manner in which our state government functions.

Promotions and transfers continue to be carried out in the department of vocational education, also known as job-oriented courses (JOC) department – which functioned under the aegis of the state pre-university education department which was ordered closed last year through a decision taken at a state cabinet meeting.

After the closure of the JOC department, at least 75% of its staffers were shifted to other the departments of public instructions, collegiate education and pre-university education.

However, while a cabinet decision led to JOC department’s closure, the department of personnel & administrative reforms (DPAR) and the education department secretariat continue to transfer and promote people within the non-existent JOC department, seemingly oblivious to the department’s closure.

What takes the cake, according to sources within the education department, is the fact that this is happening despite the state government’s repeated reminders to transfer the remaining 25% of the erstwhile JOC staffers to other existing departments.

Sources confirmed that, recently, the education department secretariat filled up an assistant director’s post in the non-existent JOC department. The previous JOC assistant director, Krishna Kumari, retired in April 2011, but a new assistant director named Bhanumathi has been appointed in her place in JOC department.

In fact, the day Krishna Kumari retired, the education department had issued a directive stating that no staffers in the erstwhile JOC department should be retained, except a handful of personnel to ensure the closure of that department.

But, on June 1, a person named Kadirvelu was promoted as the JOC department’s director, and he is scheduled to retire within the next three months, the sources said, adding that at least five recent cases of transfers to and promotions within the non-existent JOC department had come to their notice.

Now, a former staffer of JOC questions on behalf of all those who were moved out of the JOC department: “When we were shifted to the parent departments, why are some people being posted to that department? We will question this in the high court.”

The state primary and secondary education minister Vishveshwara Hegde Kageri merely justified it, saying: “The closing process is still on; so we need some people to work their.”