The All Manipur Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Field Assistant Employees Union has threatened to launch intense agitation if the state government failed to appoint an appropriate officer as director in the Veterinary and Animal Husbandry department as per existing service rules.
Union general secretary Ch Ashok Kumar stated in a release that the department has suitable regular officers in the feeder grade. However, instead of appointing the joint director of the department as director, commissioner of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry has been appointed to look after the charge of the director. This was done after the retirement of previous director on attaining the age of superannuation with effect from February 28.
The department is purely a technical department and the officers are professional graduates. They should also be the registered veterinary practitioner enrolled in the Manipur State Veterinary Council constituted under the Indian Veterinary Council Act, 1984, it added.
“The service of officers working in the said department is under the category of organised service namely the Manipur Veterinary and Animal Husbandry Service Rules, 1994; wherein the director (MVS-Grade I) should be amongst regular joint director possessing post graduate degree or diploma in veterinary science,” the release stated.
It further pointed out that all the activities of the department have been executed and ventilated up to grass root level through the qualified veterinary graduate or post graduate degree or diploma holders and their subordinate staff who trained and experienced in their fields. As such, the present appointment of non-technical officer as head of the department with effect from March 11, 2021 in the department of Veterinary and Animal Husbandry is not admissible rather a malafide practice, illegal and injustice appointment order in the part of the government.
In the past, all the professional officers of the department were considered even from the lower rank of deputy director or equivalent to look after the charge as director, considering the technical and professional ethics of veterinary science, it added.
