RR manipulation suspected
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, May 31 2012:
A serious suspicion has been raised about possibility of manipulating standard rules and regulations by some top officers of Agriculture Department while issuing advertisement for appointment of Director and Deputy Director on deputation to the State Agriculture Management and Extension Training Institute (SAMETI) .
A reliable source in Agriculture Department informed that SAMETI has been providing various extension services in the fields of agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and fishery after it was opened in 2005-06 with Agriculture Department as the nodal agency under the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India.
As a rule, SAMETI should have seven staff including one Director, four Deputy Directors, one computer programmer and one accountant cum clerk.
Of the seven staff, the Director and the four Deputy Directors must be Post Graduate Diploma in Agriculture Extension Management (PGDAEM) .
SAMETI has already sponsored around 30 officials of Agriculture Department for PGDAEM course and they have completed the course.
Even as there are around 30 officials qualified for the post of Director and Deputy Directors, rules and regulations for appointment of Director and Deputy Directors on deputation were manipulated while issuing advertisement for the same.
As such it is most likely that all the labour of completing the PGDAEM course may go waste.
According to rules already approved by the Government of India as well as the State Cabinet, candidates for the post of SAMETI Director must be PGDAEM, Post Graduate in Agriculture and must have certain experience in agriculture management and allied sectors.
For Deputy Directors, candidates must be PGDAEM and Post Graduate in relevant subjects.
However, all these rules and regulations were manipulated in the advertisement issued by the Agriculture Director on May 18 .
The same advertisement did not mention anything about the mandatory PGDAEM, added the source.
Under SAMETI, Agricultural Technology Management Agencies (ATMA) have been opened and operating in all districts.
Funds necessary for running ATMAs are released directly to SAMETI by the Government of India.
Whatever amount released to SAMETI cannot be kept unused for more than 15 days.
However, as the Agriculture Director is currently donning the role of SAMETI Director-in-charge, due funds have not been released for more than two months on account of which staff have not been paid salaries for the same period.