HYDERABAD: Following the Vigilance report on the Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Scheme that recommended action against 57 retired and serving engineers, the Irrigation department has put all promotions on hold. As a result, several key posts, including that of engineers-in-chief, are being managed under Full Additional Charge (FAC) arrangements.
An executive engineer posted at Jala Soudha is signing not only his own files but also those of the superintending engineer and the chief engineer. A senior official said this arrangement was creating an additional burden and affecting the department’s ability to handle major responsibilities, such as completing ongoing irrigation projects and addressing inter-state river water disputes.
According to sources in the department, all engineers-in-chief, 40 of the 57 superintending engineers, and several executive engineers continue under FAC arrangements. Employees have raised concerns that FAC responsibilities are being assigned to officers from the 2005, 2007 and 2008 PSC batches, bypassing eligible seniors from the 2004 batch.
“This practice violates the principles of seniority and fairness, causes anguish, and undermines the morale of senior engineers who are capable of leading the department in higher positions,” a group of engineers stated in a letter to the department’s top officials on Thursday.
They called for immediate promotions for eligible deputy executive engineers (DEEs) of the 2004 PSC batch to the post of executive engineer, citing vacancies created by recent retirements. They also urged the government to cancel all FAC assignments given to junior officers where eligible seniors are available in the approved panel.
The engineers pointed out that the integrated seniority list has not been published since 2009. In a letter to Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy, they said: “We joined service in 2004 as assistant executive engineers and were promoted to the deputy executive engineer cadre between 2010 and 2012.
Since then, we have served in the DEE cadre for more than 12 to 15 years. The promotion process has not yet been initiated, leading to frustration and demoralisation, particularly as several juniors have already been assigned FAC responsibilities as executive engineers.”