UT faces acute shortage of officers

Tribune news service

Chandigarh, August 12

With the recent order of the repatriation of Dr Shilpi Pattar Dutt after her arrest by the CBI, shortage of officers has become more acute as the Administration is left with a few officers.

The shortage could be gauged from the fact that Kriti Garg has now been entrusted with the charges of all threes SDMs of Chandigarh. The Administration has given her the charges of all departments of Pattar, including charge of the SDM (East). She has already been holding the charges of the SDM (South) and (Central).

Pattar is the second HCS officer after Birendra Chaudhary who was repatriated to Haryana before the completion of three-year tenure. The Administration has divided the charges of the SDMs among three officers with an aim to provide the services near to their houses.

The Administration is facing the shortage of senior-level posts of IAS officers as no replacement has been made by the Ministry of Home Affairs since long. The appointment of Finance Secretary and Special Secretary, Finance, is still lying with the Ministry of Home affairs.

The UT is yet to get the replacement for Bhavna Garg and Kartik Addappa who were repatriated from Chandigarh in July last year. Though the Administration has selected one of the officers, Virat, from Haryana, he is yet to join the Administration.