Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, June 15: Having finalized its recommendations in its second meeting on June 11, the Cabinet Sub Committee (CSC) on Recruitment Policy today didn’t approve the final document prepared by the General Administration and Law Departments for submission to the Cabinet on the ground that the final document lacked complete provisions of reservation policy for all categories. It asked the two Departments to finalize the document tomorrow when the CSC will meet again to examine and approve it if everything goes well.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the CSC headed by Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh returned the document to the GAD and Law Department for changes only in context of reservation policy while approving all other provisions of the new Recruitment Policy, finalized in June 11 meeting and asked the officials of the two Departments to modify the document by tomorrow morning for final approval.
“The CSC has asked the GAD and Law Department to prepare provisions of reservation policy in such a way that no imbalances are created at the time of regularization of the employees after five years,’’ sources said, adding the CSC that met in Srinagar for third time in a month also directed the two Departments to incorporate a provision that all District Level Recruitment Committees will have one member each from the Scheduled Caste (SC) community.
Sources said some of the Ministers observed that the as per the document, some imbalances would be created at the time of regularization of the employees recruited under reserved categories. The CSC directed the GAD and Law Department to remove this anomaly by tomorrow morning.
Moreover, there were apprehensions voiced by some Ministers that forms of the SC employees, who would apply in 10 districts of Kashmir under reservation could be misplaced by some members or staff in the District Level Committees. Therefore, it was decided that all Recruitment Committees should have one member each from the SC community to protect their rights.
The CSC asked the GAD and Law Department to revise the document by tomorrow morning. The CSC would meet again tomorrow morning to see the draft and approve it if found to the satisfaction of the CSC members and then send it to the Cabinet for approval, sources said and added that after approval, the Cabinet would send it to the Governor for issuance of ordinance.
In its second meeting on June 11, the first being on June 1, the CSC had finalized most of the provisions of the Policy and send it to GAD and Law Department with directions to come out with draft for study by the CSC members. The draft couldn’t be approved in wake of lacunas in implementation of reservations today, sources said, adding it was likely to be approved tomorrow.
The Government wanted issuance of ordinance at the earliest to fill up huge backlog of vacancies especially that of doctors and lecturers in remote and far off areas.
The CSC had finalized its recommendations on June 11 making several changes in the previous Policy that was approved by the Cabinet on April 18 but was referred to the CSC following strong public outcry and return of the ordinance by Governor NN Vohra.
The CSC has already recommended that Reservation Act will be applicable on all adhoc/contractual appointments. The District Level Committees, which will make the appointments, will have representatives from the Public Service Commission (PSC) and Services Selection Recruitment Board (SSRB) for gazetted and non-gazetted categories respectively.
The CSC has finalized that the Committees will have one member each from the PSC for gazetted level appointments and one member each from the SSRB for non-gazetted level appointments.
Out of eight PSC members, who would take charge after some time, one each would be assigned one district for recruitment. Similarly, the Government would appoint more members to the SSRB and one of them would be assigned one district for fast track level appointments on contract/adhoc basis.
The CSC has already decided that the candidates recruited under LoC and RBA categories will have to serve in their areas for a period of seven years while others will have to serve the areas for which they have been appointed for a period of five years.
It has approved that all adhoc/contractual appointees will be regularized now after five years instead of seven years, as mentioned in the original Policy.
The rider for regularization that HoDs would have to furnish satisfactory services certificates to adhoc/contractual appointees remained unchanged. The conduct of adhoc/contractual appointees will be assessed every year instead of five years and based on their five years report, they will be regularized if their services were found satisfactory.
The CSC has earlier decided to make applicable the Reservation Act in all fast track recruitments on adhoc/contractual basis, thus, meeting the demand of various organisations, which have opposed the Policy on the ground of lack of reservations.
The CSC has also decided that gazetted level posts will be filled on State level. For instance, the posts of doctors and lecturers to be filled on adhoc basis in one district like Kathua, would be open for all eligible candidates of the State. However, the non-gazetted appointments will be open for district level candidates but the SCs will get their eight per cent reservation in all districts i.e. they can apply for adhoc appointments even in other districts for district cadre posts.
Sources said the PSC and SSRB will continue their normal working. The new Policy will be applicable only to fill huge vacancies in Government hospitals, colleges, especially in rural and far off areas and other postings of immediate nature while the normal appointments would be made through the two main recruitment agencies—the PSC and the SSRB.
The CSC has exempted Civil Services Examinations from the purview of New Recruitment Policy and they would continue to be conducted as usual by the PSC
The CSC has decided to keep period of seven years services for jobs secured under RBA and LoC reservation categories to serve in the same areas as the members felt that there was dire need of doctors, lecturers and other postings of important nature in these areas. However, they will get regularized in five years.
On remuneration, it has been decided that the contractual/adhoc appointees will get basic salary plus some allowances. On regularization, they will get full salary and all allowances.
The CSC comprised Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh (Chairman), Health and Medical Education Minister Choudhary Lal Singh, PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control Minister Sukhnandan Kumar, all BJP, Education Minister Naeem Akhter, Law & Parliamentary Affairs Minister Basharat Bukhari and Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu all PDP.
Governor NN Vohra had returned the Recruitment Policy to the Government on April 25 within a week of its approval by the Cabinet seeking clarifications on certain controversial clauses.
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