Water Authority: 112 posts remaining vacant, Jal Jeevan mission stalled

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With promotions to higher posts halted, there is a dearth of officers within the water authority to lead various projects. After the retirement of the chief engineer in May, there is a total of 112 posts remaining void inside the authority.

The touted Jal Jeevan mission program is also on a halt for the unavailability of chief engineers from the south, central, and north regions, who have to give technical approvals for the projects to begin. The delay in promotions among higher-ranked officers has duly affected the lower-ranked officials. It is the departmental promotion committee chaired by a PSC member that should sanction promotions within higher ranked officers.

12 chief engineer posts are remaining vacant as of now. The new list approved by the DPC reached the water authority almost a month back. Nothing effective happened because six of the Deputy Chief Engineer offices in charge of tenders are functioning on a temporary basis due to a lack of officers. The probation period for those in the ranks of deputy chief engineers has not been declared yet.

There are currently 15 vacancies for executive engineers, who are in charge of clean water supply projects. There are also a dozen other vacancies for divisional accounts officers who manage accounts at the divisional level.

The transfers that were scheduled for the month of June are getting delayed. This is invariably affecting the promotion of officers within the department. The association of Kerala water authority officers will do a sit-in dharna in front of the main water authority office in the capital on Saturday.