Total ban on Govt recruitments draws flak

The organisations coming out with sharp criticism against the DF Government’s order include the district unit of Rajya Sarkari Karmachari Sanghatana, Nagpur Zilla Parishad Karmachari Mahasangh, Vidarbha Shikshak Sangh and the district council of Communist Party of India.

While justifying the decision to put a strict ban on recruitment the DF government stated that it had become absolutely necessary to take an extreme step because the establishment cost went up to unmanageable proportion of 73 per cent of the State budget. The DF Government had also made commitment to cut down the expenses to about 50 per cent of the budget in next five years. Keeping with the announcement made by the Finance Minister Jayant Patil during the budget session to take drastic measures, the government issued the order putting a complete ban on recruitment.

Taking a strong exception to Patil’s remarks that the administrative expenses accounted for 73 per cent of the State’s budgetary expenditure, the Rajya Sarkari Karmachari Sanghatana claimed that it was as low as 15 per cent. The Sanghatana alleged that the DF government was misleading the people on this issue by making blatantly false statements. In a release issued here, Sanghatana’s district unit General Secretary Chandrahas Sutey said the Sanghatana was planning to launch an intense agitation against the DF government’s latest order.

The DF government also wrote separate letters to local bodies and state-run enterprises asking them to reduce at least five per cent of the employees from their establishments within two months. Several organisations of zilla parishad employees issued a joint statement, blasting the DF government’s letter to local bodies and state undertakings. They demanded that the government should make public the detailed account of administrative expenditure. It will prove that the government’s claim about the salary and wages of employees were highly exaggerated. They pointed out that on one hand the government has imposed a complete ban on recruitments, while as per the records, the total vacancies in the government departments stood at 1.25 lakh.

Instead of making false claims about the expenses incurred on account of salary and wages, the government should better take some effective steps to curb expenses incurred on maintaining the jumbo cabinet and huge fleet of vehicles for ministers and top officials, they demanded.

In a separate statement, Devendra Tiwari of Vidarbha Shikshak Sanghatana also warned that employees and teachers will launch agitation to protest the government. He also hit out at the DF government decision to allow admission to 70 students per section saying that it will render a large number of teachers surplus, he said.

In yet another statement, Bal Aloni, District Secretary and Anil Kale, city unit Secretary of CPI alleged that the drastic step was taken by the DF government under pressure from World Bank and IMF. The party will launch agitation against the anti-employees step, the release added.