P.C. Ram

Guwahati, Oct. 22: An FCI honcho disembarks from the New Delhi-Guwahati flight and plonks down at the airport terminal, surrounded by subordinates who wait patiently either for instructions or to get files cleared.

Job done, J. Srivastava, executive director (finance), FCI, takes the next flight back to Delhi. He does not set foot outside the airport and rarely visits the FCI office whose previous occupant, P.C. Ram, died in a crossfire during a gunbattle between security forces and his Ulfa abductors on July 12 last year.

Ram was abducted along with his driver from Guwahati in April. Two Ulfa militants were also killed in the encounter in Borka Panitema village in Kamrup district.

Despite several appeals from the employees, no officer has come to join Ram’s post. His immediate successor, A.K. Roy, joined in November but left in a week.

In a letter to the managing director, the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Employees Welfare Association of the FCI said Srivasatava, who is based in Delhi and holds dual charge, approves, passes and signs files at Guwahati airport as he is afraid to go to the office.

Several welfare projects of the employees are stalled as these need the clearance of the executive director. The zonal secretary of the association, R.K. Das, said work under the public distribution system has also been hampered because of the same reason.

The FCI’s zonal office here controls the corporation’s activities in all the seven northeastern states. Das said many employees have not been able to take loans from the contributory provident fund and transfers and promotions of many others have been stalled.

The CBI is investigating Ram’s killing.

In the letter to the managing director, the association requested that A.K. Roy be directed to fill up the vacant post immediately in the interest of the FCI’s Northeast employees and proper functioning of the corporation.