Recruitment Rules

In our State the Government is the biggest employer. Normally, the industries sector provides maximum job opportunities reducing pressure on the Government. But our State is deficient in industrial expansion for various reasons. As such the entire burden of employment falls on the shoulders of the Government.
However, the issue we are taking up today are the recruitment rules for various departments, most of which are outdated. It does not mean only just employing the staff; it means giving the employees the right of promotion and other benefits which accrue to them on the basis of length of service or qualification or performance as the case may be. The ARI and Trainings Department as well as the Public Service Commission, which is directly dealing with recruitment in various departments of the Government, have felt that recruitment rules are old and out of date for many departments and in others there is the need of upgrading these. Also in some departments like Agriculture, the rules of recruitment are so complex and out of sync with present requirements that these create many hindrances in smooth recruitment of freshers as well as promotion and placement of deserving candidates. In view of these discrepancies in the rules, the ARI and Training Department had written to all departments to modify and upgrade recruitment rules and bring these in line with the requirements of present day administration. Remaining glued to old and outdated rules resulted in inefficiency and lack of interest for dedicated work. But unfortunately the departments have not responded to the instructions of the ARI and Trainings Department. The result is that much injustice is done to many officials who are eligible and deserving for promotion in their respective departments. This situation gives rise to litigation because those who feel injustice is done to them want to seek it from whatever source available to them. Even the Public Service Commission has been regularly advising the Government in its annual reports that recruitment rules should be upgraded and brought in line with the requirements of the departments concerned. It has pinpointed that owing to obsolete rules many posts of higher cadres remain vacant because the rules are so complicated and impractical that the Commission is forced to defer recruitment and keep the posts pending. This is contrary to the norms of good governance and the practice must be discarded as early as possible. Employees are governed through rules and a system and they cannot be treated by any means other than the prescribed law. And when it is felt that the rules need amendment or upgrading, the authorities cannot sit on the suggestion and play with the career of the employees.
In view of indifferent attitude of most of the departments to the instructions of the ARI and Trainings Department, fresh instructions have been issued to them to do the needful without further delay.  It has again recommended massive review of the Recruitment Rules for necessary amendments.   It has also been noticed that the departments even submit incomplete proposals by way of not providing the orders of creations, comprehensive notes/comparative statements etc as a consequence of which it becomes impossible for the ARI and Trainings Department to place the cases before the Standing Committee constituted by the Government.
The Government has taken serious note of non-compliance of repeated instructions on the Recruitment Rules provided to the departments. That is why the Chief Secretary has once again enjoined upon all the Administrative Departments to conduct a comprehensive review of the Recruitment Rules of all the services under their administrative control and propose amendments to address the issues arising out of stagnation, absence of appropriate hierarchical pyramids at various levels, litigations, creations from time to time and creation of new posts for which method of recruitment is not prescribed.
A new and more recent trend to which we have referred to many a time in these columns is that some departmental heads are just trifling with the instructions of higher authorities that are meant to improve the quality of governance. This is a disappointing trend and should be stopped without loss of time. Why should Government tolerate an authority in the administrative hierarchy that is unwilling to adjust with the need of the time? Unless some sort of punitive measure is taken against the defaulting authority, this trend of defying the orders of the superior authority may not be stopped.

Follow our WhatsApp channel