Sopore, Nov 14: Following a strange discovery that government workers were running street vending stalls in Sopore, north Kashmir, during work hours, the administration decided to withhold their salaries. The pertinent heads have also been asked to provide an action report. The incident gained attention after the enforcement team was requested to streamline the vendors in the busiest Sopore market by Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Sopore, SA Raina, to ensure that commuters experience no inconvenience at all. SHO Sopore was in charge of the group.Two government workers were discovered running the vending machines during their working hours after the incident. Following this, the Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) in question were instructed by the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) of Sopore, SA Raina, to withhold the affected employees’ November salaries. He also asked the concerned heads for action reports.“The responsible government employees have been identified as Javaid Ahmed Sheikh from Panzulla Rafiabad and Nazir Ahmed Changa from Noor Bagh. They will explain the situation and submit the action taken report,” an official citing ADC Sopore said. Nazir works in the Animal Husbandry (Veterinary) department, while Javaid is assigned to the Irrigation and Flood Control (I & FC) department. According to the ADC, the administration is taking the necessary measures to guarantee that government offices are punctual. “These drives will go on in the future as well,” he declared, noting that similar instances of neglecting one’s responsibilities had previously been documented and were met with severe consequences, including wage deductions.The official went on to say that several employees were discovered to be absent following similar inspections conducted in different government offices throughout Sopore. The administration is taking this seriously, and the concerned DDOs have been instructed to take the amount and credit it to the district Red Cross fund instead of the officials’ salaries. He said that in order to guarantee commuter convenience, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Municipal Council Sopore, Tehsildar, and the SHO were instructed to carry out these checks on a regular basis. The official stated, “The CEO MC shall also ensure that only those vendors who are registered at the municipality office would be allowed to install their stalls in the Sopore market.”
