Workers working for Shrine Board on water vending machines are paid Rs 4000- 5000 per month far below minimum wages
Due to a shortage of catering manpower in Shrine Board outlets food is being served by laborers, PHE, PDD workers and Sweepers to devotees
400 crore funds accumulated in donations by professional manpower of Board is being invested in establishing Hospital
Reemployment of retired near and dear on ecommendation of higher bureaucracy is disastrous for Organization’s health
Due to poor internal audits and poor financial controls, there are apprehensions of GST fraud
GY CORRESPONDENT
Katra, Oct 20
Dreams of the founder of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, Late Sh. Jagmohan Ex-Governor of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir was shattered by the management of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board by adopting a poor mechanism of hiring outsourced security and sanitation workers despite having huge funds accumulated by the Shrine Board due to the hard work of the employees. Even service charges/income collected by the different service providers like license shops, pony service, gondola, etc. Since 1986 Shrine Board has grown manifold in every field whether it’s Sanitation, Catering, Accommodation Management, Blanket Distribution, Water Supply, or technology including the name and fame of Mata Rani all around the world. From the year 1986 onwards Sanitation was the key focus of the Shrine Board but in the last two or three years no heed has been paid to sanitation activities and manpower although many national awards have been managed by the Shrine Board.
Senior Officers are sent by the Government to the Shrine Board for a specific purpose but these officers adopt policy to deploy regular human resources of Shrine Board in their homes, offices, and in the homes of state bureaucrats whereas sanitation services on the track are day by day worsened. Unofficially, the personnel department of the Shrine Board has secretly deployed many regular attendants in the homes of the officers for domestic work and also provided such regular employees to the senior bureaucrats or ex-CEOs / additional CEOs.
Security guards and sanitation workers of the Shrine Board play an essential role in ensuring the cleanliness, hygiene, temple management, VVIP protocol, safety, and security of shrine property. These army-trained security guards called Sahayaks look after the Darshan queues management in the holy cave in a very professional manner and further look after the theft, vandalism, and other crimes like a Shrine Police.
Despite their critical role in the Shrine Board, nowadays security guards are hired from outsourced security agencies namely APS Security Services and this Agency is paying very low wages below the standard wages fixed by the Labour Department in JKUT. It has been learned that APS Group is paying Rs.6000 to Rs.6500 per month to young boys. Before enrolling local youths this security agency has lured these youths that all uniforms, food, and shelter will be provided free of cost apart from Rs.12000 per month salary. Fifty percent of the enrolled security guards left the job just because of late payment and low wages.
The average pay for security guards fixed by the Labour Department for skilled security guards is more than Rs. 450/day whereas manpower enrolled by M/s APS Group is being paid Rs. 200/day. Moreover, these private security and sanitation agencies do not give any appointments or offer letters to the enrolled workers. Such fraud and low pay can make it difficult for the guards to make ends meet; especially if they have families to support. Further, these security guard positions do not offer benefits such as maternity benefits, health insurance retirement plans, etc.
On the other hand, another outsourced sanitation company namely M/s Godawari Enterprises is paying a very low wage to the sanitation workers utilizing poor sanitation workers in double shifts, and passing misinformation among workers that Shrine Board officers have allowed us to utilize sanitation manpower in double shifts.
In interaction with the Union Leaders of the Board and Ponywalas , they said that the Shrine Board is a very giant organization and it is very difficult to fight with this organization because it is headed by the Governor who is Chairman of the Shrine Board, and all courts, police, and other agencies favors the Shrine Board and no one listens to the voice of union leaders and workers problems. Many EPF, gratuity cases are pending in a court of law, and poor laborers either they have no knowledge about labor rights or have no money to contend legally with such a big organization. Other the other hand several lakhs are being paid to the near and dear Advocates hired by the officers of the Shrine Board for unnecessary litigation.
The average pay for outsourced sanitation workers fixed by the Labour Department for unskilled sanitation workers is Rs. 300/day whereas enrolled outsourced guards are paid Rs. 200/day without any accommodation and food. Moreover, these private security and sanitation agencies like m/s Godavari and m/s APS Security have not given any appointment or offer letter to the enrolled sanitation workers. Moreover, security guards provided by the m/s APS security are untrained and underprepared even unqualified for the job duties they are assigned.
Other workers working for the Shrine Board on water vending machines are also exploited by the supervisor and managers of the shrine board and paid Rs. 4000-Rs. 5000 per month. These low-paid sanitation workers and security workers have negative consequences on the quality of work and performance due to unfair wages and others schemes. This, in turn, leads to high turnover rates and workers frequently leaves the job, which can compromise the security and cleanliness of the holy track and complexes where they are assigned to work.
Moreover affordable food services in Bhojanalayas nowadays have lowered their food quality standards because the quality of grocery items like Rajmash, Besan, edible oil, and other ingredients remain unchecked and no employee comes forward to complain because entire lower quality food items are purchased by Jt. CEO-level officer and with the fear of bad performance appraisal no subordinate employees dare to complain against them. Also due to the shortage of catering manpower in Shrine Boards restaurants quality of food being served is affected mostly on counters served by the forest laborers, PHE, PDD workers, and Sweepers. Recently some organization like Shiv Sena has strongly criticized the administration of the Shrine Board for floating tenders of outsourcing of catering outlets of the Shrine Board because catering of the Shrine Board in the past was Brand itself but sick management of the Board day by day tarnishing the image of Shrine Board.
Highly talented officers on deputation in shrine board has developed lavished office chambers for themselves, misusing official vehicles by plying jammu-Katra-udhampur routes and expended lakhs of rupees monthly on POL and procurement of poor quality purchases on exorbitant rates but adopting cost-cutting mechanism by hiring outsource manpower on low wages and dreams a higher-quality service, conversely, if these officers skimp to save money by hiring poor quality outsource manpower from preferred agencies, they can only expect to receive lower-quality services which primarily contributing to worsening the Boards quality and professionalism.
Addl. Chiefs, Joint Chiefs are ambassadors of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and for its better operations. Credibility is a key factor in internal influence and the comportment, accomplishments, and appearance of these officers are the single most important factor in the credibility of the operational activities. If such Officers personally need top-quality regular employees for their domestic work, personal usage of costly material from the Shrine Board’s funds and then they should not hire poor-quality manpower that provides direct services to the devotees.
Due to poor internal audits and poor financial controls, in past several issues of counting room frauds were hushed up because donation counting room is controlled by 80 years old Accounts Officer, many units like Administration Block, Bhairon units have no accountants, there are GST frauds too in providing commercial services to the devotees. Chief Accounts Officer is voluntarily managing and involved in many accounting irregularities. Funds in the shape of fixed deposits are being diverted in private Banks without healthy tendering process. Responsible chairs are given to near and dears in Accounts department and accounting staff are enjoying overstay on the behest of Chief Accounts Officer. Officers of Shrine Board who are retiring are given immediate extension in service as a gift or award for financial frauds.
In conclusion, poor quality outsourcing through contractors and sub-contractors and extensions in service to retirees, such policy is directly damaging the image of the Shrine Board. It can have far-reaching consequences, including lower job performance, and compromising quality, health, hygiene, safety, security and financial controlling. The Chief Executive Officer should bring transformation in the internal structure of the Shrine Board needs to shake up structures to reduce organizational cholesterol by transferring long-stayed Jt. CEOs and other deputations including seizing extension in the services of retirees so that their fiefdom come to an end which is a major hurdle to change strategic transformation and reconfigurations.
