Alleging discrimination in the departmental promotion process in the Public Works Department, the Karnataka Government SC/ST Employees Association has petitioned Water Resources Minister Govind Karjol to exert pressure on Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to prevent injustice to the employees hailing from the community.
Memorandum
In a memorandum given to him on Wednesday, the association pointed out at the postponement of the departmental promotion committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday to draw the list of Superintending Engineers eligible to be promoted as chief engineers. “This was done using political pressure to deny Scheduled Caste engineers their promotion and this will result in many SC superintending engineers nearing retirement to superannuate without reaching the chief engineer position,” the memorandum said.
The association has also alleged that though 11 posts of superintending engineers are vacant, the DPC process has been completed to promote 31 superintending engineers to the posts, which will result in no posting for 20 SC/STs who are currently holding superintending engineers posts.
Backlog
“Also, the seniority list drawn in the department has not considered posts filled under the backlog, and has ensured seniority for 700 engineers from the general category. This will prevent any promotion to SC/ST engineers to the post of executive engineers for the next ten years,” association president D. Chandrashekaraiah alleged in the memorandum, adding that though the Chief Secretary has cleared introduction of reservation for the promotion from the assistant engineer posts, it has not been implemented so far.
The memorandum appealed to the Minister, “Considering all these, you being a senior Minister, hailing from the Scheduled Caste community, and also as a former PWD Minister, should prevail upon the Chief Minister to take steps as per the provisions of law.”
