Congress legislators led by Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda staged a walkout during the ongoing Winter Session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha on Tuesday after a heated debate on the state government's flagship recruitment scheme. The opposition MLAs attacked the government through a Calling Attention Notice on “recruitment through Haryana Kaushal Rozgar Nigam in the state” by MLA Kiran Choudhry. Balraj Kundu, Independent MLA from Meham, and Congress MLAs including Bharat Bhushan Batra, Varun Chaudhary and Aftab Ahmed also raised questions on recruitments through the Nigam. Despite a detailed answer by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the Congress MLAs chose to walk out. Choudhry said the Nigam appears to have been constituted to exploit learned youths. “The government is cheating people through this Nigam. Contractual system is being encouraged. Students are feeling pained and exploited. Recruitments are taking place without any norms. Those who are recruited are given far-flung postings, due to which many eligible candidates are not joining,” she pointed out. “By doing all this, the government is attempting to end the reservation of Dalits and backward classes, too. Today, over 1.82 lakh posts are lying vacant. According to the CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy), the state is witnessing over 30 per cent unemployment. It is a black spot on the government. Recruitments conducted are challenged in courts of law due to discrepancies,” Choudhry added. Questioning the eligibility criteria being adopted by the Nigam, she said, “Why hasn't the eligibility criteria been followed? Why isn't the merit list being made public? What are the procedures being followed for verification of antecedents of the candidates? Will the PGTs (Post Graduate teachers) and TGTs (Trained Graduate Teachers) appointed through this Nigam ever be regularised? …. Why does this Nigam not have any statutory backing? In absence of all this, it is just a promotion of the contractual system. Over 40,000 have been employed through outsourcing or back-door entry.” She also asked the government for a roadmap to deal with the issue of unemployment. Although Minister Mool Chand Sharma refuted all the allegations, Choudhry kept raising further questions. MLA Balraj Kundu too asked if those recruited through the Nigam would ever become permanent employees. Congress MLA Bharat Bhushan Batra, said, “What was the need to form this Nigam? Had this been with the government bodies, the matter would have been different, but why has this Nigam been constituted as a private limited company? Refuting Batra's assertions, Khattar said, “Earlier, the recruitments were done through contractors, private companies and the government used to take people from there. But we have created a government platform… It is not that this Nigam is a private company, only government officials are part of it and the private player is only hired for facilitation”. Bhupinder Hooda too slammed the government and said, “You have cited merit as the eligibility criteria. Who decides the income level used for issuing Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) on the basis of which you are giving relaxation marks? Who is issuing that PPP? Which criteria is being adopted to finalise merit?” Replying to various queries, Khattar said, “This Nigam is an alternative to the outsourcing of recruitments that used to happen through contractors. There were so many complaints about the contractual recruitment system. It is a new portal, created for the first time. It is not possible that there would be no discrepancies in this system, but these will be rectified. Only 4,000-5,000 recruitments have taken place through this Nigam as of now. The outsourcing appointments that were held earlier through contractors shall also be analysed. Yes, it is not a permanent job that is being given through this Nigam. It is only for one year initially. If permanent recruitments take place against these posts… these people (recruited through the Nigam) will have to go”. Khattar added that the government shall also come up with a “rationalising commission that would decide how many posts each department requires and recruitments would be done accordingly.” He added that the present government is making recruitments solely on the basis of “requirement” and “not by way of any political decisions”. Hooda refused to accept the government's explanation on the issue and said “it was unfair to the youth of Haryana” and that “the people of the state will never accept this”.
