Ibni Maqbool
Srinagar: Nearly five years after the J&K cabinet cleared a proposal to create separate service for Information Technology professionals, the administration of the Union Territory has begun the exercise to constitute the service.
The department of Information Technology has begun the process of identifying the initial constituents of the service by asking all IT related personnel/officers who have been previously appointed to various departments against IT related posts to submit their details.
The exercise has been initiated on the recommendations of a selection committee headed by administrative secretary Information Technology department and comprising officials from different departments.
“The selection committee decided that the first and foremost thing is to constitute the service by identifying the initial constituents of the service strictly as per the provisions of the aforementioned SROs( 343 and 344 of 2016). In this regard, the selection committee authorized the Information Technology department to collect the particulars of the eligible entrants by inviting details as per a format devised by the Information Technology department. The particulars of the entrants/ initial constituents shall be accepted only if the same are duly attested by the respective DDOs and countersigned by the HODs,” reads minutes of the meeting held on March 30 this year.
The meeting was attended by Simrandeep Singh, Secretary IT department, Achal Sethi, administrative secretary, Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs,M.Y.Itoo, Director General, Budgets and Rohit Sharma, Additional Secretary, General Administration Department.
On October 9, 2016, the PDP-BJP coalition headed by Mehbooba Mufti cleared a proposal for creation of Jammu and Kashmir Information Technology Service .
In the follow-up to the cabinet decision, the Jammu and Kashmir Information Technology Service Recruitment Rules, (gazetted & non-Gazetted) were notified vide SRO 343 & 344.
As per the cabinet decision and notifications, all the Information Technology related posts were to be withdrawn from the departments, (excluding the posts created under project/scheme sponsored by the Government of India ) and they were required to be made the initial constituents of the Jammu and Kashmir Information Technology Service (gazetted and non-gazetted).
Under rule 4 of these SROs, a selection committee was mandated to undertake the task of appointing the initial constituents of the newly created service.