Ranchi, Aug. 4: Jharcraft, the state handloom and handicraft corporation, which projected itself as the best thing to come out of Jharkhand before it bared its weak balance sheet, is in further trouble now as it is without a boss and authorised signatory to disburse salaries to 400 contractual staffers since July 22.

The chair of Jharcraft managing director (MD) is vacant since July 22, when MD Ajay Kumar Singh was transferred to state higher and technical education department.

Jharcraft MD happens to be the lone drawing and disbursement officer (DDO) for the salaries of about 400 persons who are employed via outsourcing agencies. They include storekeepers, salespersons and security guards in emporiums across India, weaving centre in-charges across the state and staff posted at Jharcraft's main office on Ratu Road.

Jharcraft employees, whom this correspondent spoke to today, said they had not got their salaries so far. Though it was only the fourth day of the month, the problem lay in the fact that no one knew when a new MD would be appointed, he said. Till then, salaries would be withheld, he feared.

"We are not highly paid like government employees. One month without pay will leave us in a hand-to-mouth situation," the employee at the Ratu Road office of Jharcraft, not wanting to be named, said.

"We are getting complaints from employees and outsourced agencies that staff have not been paid July salaries so far. But, unless the government appoints a new MD of Jharcraft or authorises some senior official with the powers of the DDO, the problem would remain," a senior industry department official at Nepal House said, adding the top government brass was busy with the Delhi roadshow.

"Soon, an official with a creative and enterprising mindset would be posted as Jharcraft MD," state personnel, administrative reforms and rajbhasa department secretary Nidhi Khare.

After Dhirendra Kumar, who was Jharcraft MD from 2006 retired in 2014, IFS officer A.T. Mishra was hired for the top job. Early this year, Mishra was replaced by Ajay Kumar Singh, who got transferred on July 22. Personnel department sources said Singh, a deputy secretary rank official, couldn't head Jharcraft as the post mandates appointment of a joint secretary rank official.

Jharcraft, which all along had marketed itself as a game-changer, recently got exposed as a loss-making concern.