THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Complaints had been raised about granting promotions to the officers of the Kerala Minerals and Metals Limited, (KMML), Chavara, bypassing the existing promotion policies. A section of officers had alleged that ever since the Industries portfolio was entrusted with the Muslim League, favouritism and other considerations had become crucial factors in granting out of turn promotions.The Board of Directors meeting held on February 12, 2007 had modified the promotion policies and certain additions were incorporated to the existing guidelines. It was clearly mentioned that after the introduction of certain modifications, promotions were granted taking into account the overall seniority of officers instead of limiting it to officers of the department where the vacancy occurrs.Now, the KMML Officers Front, one of the two organisations of the officers in the company, had alleged that there was clear violation of the existing promotion policies ever since the UDF came to power. Speaking to Express, Front general secretary P C Ramesh said that the Front, in its complaint to be submitted to the KMML Management on Thursday, would point out that as per the existing promotion guidelines for becoming eligible for consideration of promotion to the next higher level, an officer has to be in service for a specific period in the feeder category. But, most of the promotions granted to officers in the recent past had violated all the existing guidelines.“As per the existing promotion policy, only one Asst General Manager post was allocated to the mechanical section under the Maintenance Department, but on Rehmath Alikhan’s promotion, there are three Asst General Managers in mechanical section under the Maintenance Department, whereas there was no AGM in Marketing and Finance Departments even though allocated one each,” he said.Ramesh said that the existing post of Asst General Manager was created by downgrading the vacant post of General Manager (Finance) consequent to the appointment of a new Executive Director who was holding the post of General Manager (Finance).It can be seen that the post created in the Finance Department was appropriated to mechanical section of the Maintenance Department for granting undue promotion to Rehmath Alikhan, he said.However, the KMML Officers Conclave General Secretary N Suresh Kumar said that the allegations were baseless and politically motivated. He said that during the tenure of the LDF Government also there had been political appointments and there was no point in complaining about such practices now. He added that Rehmath Alikhan was getting a promotion after putting in 21 years of service.Responding to the issue, C J George, Executive Director and Managing Director in-charge of KMML, told Express that promotions were made following normal procedures.He said that up to the AGM-level, department seniority has to be considered.“For senior posts, overall seniority would be the criteria. But this cannot be followed always as there would be clustering of senior posts in a particular department alone. In the case of senior posts such as the executive director’s post, the government would be making appointments taking various aspects into consideration,” he said.
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