Chandigarh: A two-decade-old practice of the Haryana Finance department, implemented with a little amendment earlier this month, has stirred up a hornet’s nest with both political parties and employees’ unions questioning the rationale behind it. This comes against the backdrop of the state registering the highest unemployment rate in the country in December, according to a report of Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
At the centre of the controversy is an instruction issued by the office of the additional chief secretary (finance department), under the subject of ‘economic measures’ on 6 February to all administrative secretaries, heads of department, registrar general of the Punjab and Haryana high court, managing directors of boards and corporations, commissioners, deputy commissioner, and vice-chancellors of universities. A copy of this order is with ThePrint.
The instructions read, “All posts, whether newly created or old, kept in abeyance or which remain unfilled/ vacant for a period of two years, may be considered as deemed abolished. Formal abolition orders are to be issued within a month by the department concerned under information to the Finance department (expenditure controlling branch) and the same should be updated on e-Post in consultation with the Finance department. Revival of post after two years will not be considered in any case. In case the department needs these posts, the (a) fresh proposal for creating a new post after following the prescribed procedure containing full functional justification may be forwarded to the Finance department.”
The latest order has tweaked the earlier procedure, mentioned in an earlier letter dated 15 February 2016 on the same subject, where a department could fill such a post with approval from the Finance department. Now, a post lying vacant for over two years is to be deemed abolished and a fresh post can be created following a proper procedure. ThePrint has a copy of the 2016 letter as well.
The latest letter also mentions two exemptions – the posts for which requisition has already been sent to the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) or the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) and for which advertisement has been issued, and, all promotional posts – meaning a promotion will not be stopped because of the abolition of the post an employee is being promoted to.
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Nothing new
The Finance department had issued the first such letter under the subject of “economic measures” in 2002, and all subsequent letters on this subject refer to it.
However, the latest letter, which abolishes all posts lying vacant for over two years, has invited criticism from all quarters – be it political parties or union leaders.
Opposing the decision, former chief minister and senior Congress leader Bhupinder Singh said to ThePrint, “1.82 lakh posts are lying vacant in government departments, but instead of recruiting, the BJP-JJP government is inflicting torture on the youth by abolishing the posts.”
“The government should take back this decision which promotes unemployment and immediately recruit on vacant posts. If they do not do so, then once the Congress comes to power, we will fill all the vacant posts by making permanent recruitments,” Hooda said Friday.
In a tweet in Hindi this Friday, Congress Rajya Sabha member Randeep Singh Surjewala said that during the “Amrit Kaal” of the BJP, the future of jobless youth has been jeopardized. Terming this decision an example of ill intentions and anti-people policy of the BJP-JJP government, Surjewala also cited the number of posts lying vacant.
भाजपा सरकार का अमृत काल,
युवाओं के भविष्य पर चली तलवार!हरियाणा में सरकारी पदों पर कैंची चला रही भाजपा-जजपा सरकार।
यही है इनकी बदनियत और कुनीति,
शर्म मरो खट्टर-दुष्यंत सरकार।
युवाओं देखो:- 👇
● सरकारी विभागों में कुल पद : 4,58,808
● कटौती : 13,462
● खाली पड़े पद : 1,82,497 pic.twitter.com/MFSdS65FD1
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) February 10, 2023
Dharamvir Phogat, state president of the Sarva Karamchari Sangh, a body which represents employees of all government departments, told ThePrint that it was ironic how on the one hand, jobless youth were waiting for the state government to advertise jobs, and on the other, the government was abolishing vacant posts.
“With 1.82 lakh out of 4.58 lakh sanctioned posts lying vacant, one can imagine how overworked the existing employees must be. With the increasing population, the government was expected to create more jobs, but here it is abolishing the existing posts,” Phogat said.
Haryana Roadways Workers Union state president Sarbat Singh Punia called the decision an injustice to the jobless youth.
Only last month, the CMIE, in its report on the unemployment rate in December 2022 showed Haryana at the top with an unemployment rate of 37.4 per cent against the national unemployment rate of 8.3 per cent.
Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, however, had defended the state, claiming that the unemployment rate for the said period was just 6 per cent. He also questioned the methodology used by the CMIE and said “these figures are based on a very small survey sample”.
ThePrint failed to connect with Anurag Rastogi, additional chief secretary (Finance), for a comment via phone and WhatsApp. This report will be updated once he responds.
Meanwhile, a senior government officer said to ThePrint that this is an age-old practice that the posts lying vacant for two years or more are frozen.
“When a post has not been filled for more than two years, it is presumed that the concerned department doesn’t need it. As an earlier practice, the government used to issue orders that the said posts won’t be filled without taking approval from the Finance department. This time, the order says that the posts will stand abolished, and if at all the department needs to recruit employees against them, a procedure for the creation of fresh posts will have to be followed,” said the officer.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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