With 2014 general elections and the State Assembly polls later this year in mind, the Congress-led UPA dispensation is making yet another of its moves — this time, to target the Dalit, OBC and tribal vote bank.
Well-placed sources said that it is eyeing to fill up an estimated two lakh vacancies, including backlog and projected, earmarked for the three categories in the Central Government services through a special recruitment drive. A new 20-member committee comprising representatives from as many ministries and departments and chaired by the Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJ & E) has been set up to find out reasons for their less employability, which the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said was due to their “lack of finishing and interview skills”. The HRD Ministry has to coordinate and monitor the newly constituted committee to review the issue “most immediately”.
The committee has been tasked to a furnish data and statistics on backlog and current (2011-2012, 2012-13 and 2013-14) vacancies and simultaneously suggest remedial measures at the earliest. The composition of the committee includes representatives from Ministries of Defence, Home, Railways, Urban Development, Mines, HRD, Agriculture, Tribal Affairs, Textiles and department and recruitment boards like Railway Recruitment Boards, Defence Production, Revenue and Financials Services, UPSC, SSC and other autonomous organisations. Sources said that by the end of this month, the report would be submitted and it is anticipated that in mid-September, the vacancies will be announced before the probability of the Election Commission’s notification for Assembly polls.
In a big question mark over the various welfare schemes spanning six decades post-Independence, the DoPT had in its report in May pointed to “less availability of professionally qualified persons and dearth of professionally qualified persons” as some of the reasons for less employability of SCs, STs, OBCs and Persons with Disabilities PWDs in the Government. The new committee will analyse the DopT report. “The committee will make an in-depth analysis of reasons for acute backlog, roughly more than two lakh vacancies, in filling up of vacancies currently. The Ministries have to suggest measures and schemes to enhance the employability too in near future. After that a decision will be taken as how to go ahead for a special recruitment drive to fill up the vacancies,” said a top HRD Ministry official. The employability to these categories is being seen as another attempt by the Congress, after the Food Security Bill, to sway electoral fortunes in its favour. The party and the Government are already beset with various scams and scandals, corruption and price rise concerning the aam aadmi.