Shiban Khaibri
The approach to tackle the problem of unemployment in the state of Jammu and Kashmir by the government needs a thorough review in the right direction. There should be a proper policy and planning which are transparent characteristically and in tune with the need and the immediate requirement by the Government in its various departments linked with the budgetary requirements made in anticipation by the policy planners. That way, the credibility of the Government shall not become suspect in the eyes of the people. Having said this, one fails to understand the rationale and the logic of the Government in pursuing a flawed policy of re – employment of those of many employees who attain the age of superannuation and get retired.
Looking to the teeming thousands of the youth, mostly educated, added each year to the list of the unemployed in the state and the present number registered with the Employment Exchanges crossing over 5.81 lacs , it seems totally far from comprehension as to why extensions and re- employment of the retired or retiring employees should take place and thus looking as if a part of the employment policy of the Government. Only a few days back, some members in the state Assembly took up this matter and virtually cornered the Government but without getting any cogent justification to their satisfaction. Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Rather could offer nothing of the sort in reply as he found himself in an uneasy situation. The point worth noting is that the members grilling the government happened to be not from any opposition party but were from the coalition of the NC and the Congress. The question again is whether the decisions were taken in the interests of the state and extensions and re-employment orders passed only looking to the dearth of their substitutes mainly on grounds of the incumbents’ technical know how , expertise in the respective field or the higher qualifications. Even if hypothetically we may agree with a few decisions of reemploying the retirees in some cases , there seems to be no ground for re-employing some persons in the junior subordinate staff like helpers, drivers etc or even granting them extensions which on the face of it, look as totally undue favours made. It is worth noting that a Congress legislator pointed out that the Government had already claimed that the unemployment was the major issue before it (to tackle), then why was it resorting to such measures to re – employ retirees or even give them extensions? “Why it resorts to pick and choose tactics on the face value of the individuals and favorites only on its sweet will”, asked the Honb’le member. He said that it was a great injustice to the deserving educated persons or those waiting for the promotions. He wanted the government to define specific criteria for the same. Another member was equally upset on seeing about the misuse of public money in as much as a large number of consultants were engaged at Government expenses for nearly contributing nothing and not only that, some class 4, drivers and clerks were given extensions for no extra ordinary quality .
The move seems totally unjustified as such appointments are not made on merits but simply on pick and choose basis and on the whims of the executive who find themselves in the heaven of empowerment to take such decisions. After all, a certain age is thought of as the benchmark or standard retirement age when naturally the output of an employee beyond that age would result in fast diminishing returns. The person may not be physically that responsive or active to work hard to contribute to the growth or progress of that institution or department. General debility and physical weakness may make one prove less productive and thus a financial liability for the employer. In any situation, employment and output are inversely related and periodic reviews of performance are supposed to be made by the employer to determine whether the one who is engaged proves beneficial and profitable in terms of wages or price paid for hiring the labour or services of the concerned person. It was Germany, first of all, where the concept of retirement was found to be worth implementing looking to various aspects especially the state of affairs of physical condition of the employee or worker to keep going in the process of performing and contributing to the pool of output and in the year 1880 the retirement was introduced. As against it, prior to the scheme of retirement, a worker continued to work till death. Again, however, his or her physical condition proved of great significance in his continuing to work.
It seems that in our state where within the last three years alone as many as 200 persons were re-employed purely on considerations of the appointing authorities, norms and procedures, more so, the relation between the cost of labour and the quantum of output has no relevance excepting the extraneous factors of “well known or in good books “of the authority, pick and choose and recommendations from “important circles” as the case may be. A judicious Government which thinking itself as the custodian of the public funds, would take keen interest in ensuring spending the funds collected from the public in the most economic, profitable and in the interests of the people. How can unproductive or unsustainable measures be taken by the government as revealed in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India , for instance, in training number of unemployed youth by spending crores of Rupees , none of them could be utilized by the government and a section of over 4000 youth trained with government funds are still unemployed if the CAG reports are to be relied upon.
The report inter -alia states, ” Even the persons selected for the training in different trades were picked on recommendations from Ministers, top bureaucrats and senior politicians, the Government spent huge amount on their training but this all went waste.” Why, the people have the right to ask. Likewise, last month only, the state government announced that it was going to fill up 80000 vacant posts through fast track recruitment in 2013 and 2014. The fact of the matter is that the unemployment policy or the norms of recruitment have not been devised and laid down as guiding factor. The Finance Minister , however, is on record saying that fundamental objective of the new recruitment policy was to reduce exponential growth of Non- Plan expenditure which was effective for the posts advertised after November 2011. The fixed salary mode ( for five years) to lessen the pressure on the growing salaries payment funds , nearly 65% of the state budget, was going neither to benefit the appointed ones nor the Government in cases of non Gazetted posts and other class 3 and 4 posts. Consolidated salaries of Rs. 5000 per month were going to benefit none.
Even the special recruitment drives of the Government have come under severe criticism wherein fears have been expressed that the same could be used as tools to further political interests with no fixed laid down criteria but only on pick and choose basis. Are such drives aimed in selected political constituencies both in Srinagar and Jammu to further the political fortunes of the main ruling party as also its coalition partner can be measured accurately only after appraising the transparency and the fair methods adopted in recruitments? The state government has to ensure that recruitments are made evenly in all areas of the state wherein all sections and regions find justice made in their favour and not in cases of those who otherwise are deserving special attention due to man made sufferings, find that the state budget had nothing for them as they were made to believe that funds were going to be provided for them by the Central Government. That was blatant discrimination and this government needed to come clean on that.
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