PMO seeks data on vacant govt posts

Chethan.Kumar@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:

Central government officials are scrambling to compile information about vacancies in

their departments and ministries and steps taken to fill posts following instructions from
the PMO. The move follows the opposition’s accusations that the Centre and PM Narendra
Modi have failed in not only creating jobs but also filling up existing vacancies. Ministries
and departments have issued internal circulars seeking the information.

However, D V Sadananda Gowda, minister for statistics and programme implementation,

said: “The PM is busy with elections, I don’t think there is any such effort. I haven’t seen
any such circular.”

Confederation of Central Government Employees president KKN Kutty said: “In the past
five years, this government has not been communicating with us. The first national
council meeting was called after elections were announced, on April 13. They wanted to
discuss the agenda we sent five years ago when the government came to power.”

DoPT to have final say on prosecution

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The DoPT, led by the PM, will have the final say on granting sanction to prosecute
graft-tainted central government employees where their respective departments and
the CVC hold different opinions. Prosecution sanction is pending for more than four
months in 45 cases involving 98 government servants. P 9

‘Vacancies in most depts between 40% and 45%’

The ministry of defence was intimated that a meeting has been scheduled shortly by the
Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to discuss civilian posts lying vacant in various
ministries/departments, according to a May 3 circular issued by undersecretary Phani
Tulasi K. They have sought details of various posts lying vacant as on April 30, 2019.

Regarding vacancies, he said there were two problems. There is a concerted effort not to
give details about vacancy numbers to the Staff Selection Commission, and the SSC is not
in a position to recruit as many people as needed. “On an average, vacancies in most
departments are between 40% and 45%. In I-T, it is 50%, 45% in CAG. There are
sanctioned posts, but no recruitment. Such reports mean nothing,” Kutty said.

TOI’s efforts to get a comment from Jitendra Singh, minister of state in the Prime
Minister’s Office (PMO) and DoPT, were in vain.
“What’s the point now when nothing was done all these years? Even in the April 13
meeting we raised this issue with the cabinet secretary. The Centre, in violation of the
Contract Labour Act, has been outsourcing permanent and perennial jobs. It seems like
they just need something to announce when they come back to power,” said All India
Defence Employees Federation general secretary C Srikumar.

The PMO has sought details on group-wise sanctioned strength, positions filled and vacant
as of April

30. Several departments have been unable to submit the required information. The MoD,
for instance, was expected to forward the details by Thursday evening.

N Kannaiah, working president, All India Railwaymen Federation, said: “There are 3.8
lakh vacancies in the railways but there have been no efforts to fill them.”