The Uttarakhand Urban Development Directorate has appointed several clerks, sanitation inspectors, tax inspectors, and accounts employees as in-charge Executive Officers (EOs) in various urban local bodies, a move that has sparked debate over adherence to service rules and appointment procedures.
The appointments were made after many regular Executive Officers were transferred to municipal corporations, leaving vacancies in several municipal councils and nagar panchayats. Although the department reportedly has around 60 Executive Officers, several posts remained vacant, prompting the administration to assign in-charge responsibilities to existing employees.
The appointment orders were issued in the name of Additional Secretary and Director, Urban Development, Vinod Giri Goswami. Among those appointed are Satish Kumar (Mahua Kheraganj), Hemant Kumar Gupta (Landhaura), Gurmeet Singh (Landhaura), Roshan Singh Pundir (Gauchar), Tariq Khan (Tehri), Saroj Gautam (Nanakmatta), Pooja (Bazpur), Ankit Rana (Piran Kaliyar), Kuldeep Chauhan (Dhandera), Yashveer Singh (Tapovan), Deepak Budlakoti (Kaladhungi), Bharat Panwar (Devprayag), Kuldeep Naithani (Ukhimath), Rakesh Kotiya (Jaspur), Kusum Matuda (Uttarkashi), Vasudev Dangwal (Chamiyala), Pankaj Singh (Lalkuan), and Prem Singh Rawat (Barkot) as in-charge Executive Officers.
The appointments have drawn criticism because, under the Uttarakhand Local Bodies (Centralised) Service Rules, 2019, Executive Officers are generally appointed either through promotion after the prescribed years of service or through recruitment by the Uttarakhand Public Service Commission (UKPSC).
Questions have also been raised over the appointment of sanitation inspectors as Executive Officers, as the post is not ordinarily part of their promotional hierarchy. Critics argue that such appointments may be inconsistent with established recruitment norms. They have also referred to a 2017 Uttar Pradesh government order, under which the charge of Executive Officer could be assigned only to officers of Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) rank, a practice that has largely been followed in Uttarakhand.
The matter also comes in the backdrop of a May 2, 2025 order of the Uttarakhand High Court, which directed the Urban Development Secretary to decide a petition highlighting the shortage of staff and the increasing reliance on in-charge arrangements in urban local bodies. The petition argued that assigning clerical staff to key administrative posts was adversely affecting municipal administration and the delivery of public services.
Responding to the controversy, Urban Development Minister Ram Singh Kaida said the arrangement is not new and that only those who had previously served as in-charge Executive Officers have been assigned the responsibility again. He added that the appointments were made because of vacancies in Executive Officer posts across the state.
