Chandigarh, December 30: Kickstarting the process ofrecruitment to 50,000 government posts during the current fiscal, as promisedby Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesdayapproved restructuring of 10 departments, thus also paving the way boostingtheir functional efficacy through fresh recruitments and technical upgradation.
The Cabinet meeting, held through Video Conferencing underthe chairmanship of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, decided to createnew and more relevant posts where required in place of the existingnon-essential or antiquated ones, many of which had been lying vacant forprolonged periods. The move also marks a major shift towards modernisation ofgovernment departments to equip them to meet the contemporary operationalchallenges.
The Chief Minister said the present-day challengesnecessitated cutting the tail where necessary, with recruitment of more staffas needed, keeping in mind the service delivery of various departments. TheCabinet authorised him to amend rules as and where needed to carry out theproposed recruitment after completion of the restructuring process.
Notably, the Cabinet led by Captain Amarinder Singh had onOctober 14 approved a State Employment Plan 2020-22, to fill vacant jobs ingovernment departments, boards, corporations and agencies in a phasedtime-bound manner, in fulfillment of the Chief Minister’s promise of providingone lakh government jobs to youth in the remaining term of his government. Withthe restructuring process, as many of the vacant posts will be done away with.
The 10 Departments to be restructured following the Cabinetdecision are: Labour, Technical Education & Industrial Training, PWD(B&R), Animal Husbandry, Fisheries & Dairy Development, Tourism &Cultural Affairs, Local Government, Printing & Stationery, Sports &Youth Service Welfare, Defence Services Welfare, Cooperation Department. Asmany 2375 posts will be abolished/surrendered in these departments, withanother 785 to be created in the first go, as part of the restructuringexercise, an official spokesperson disclosed, adding that moving forward, moreposts will be created as required.
In the Labour Department, against 204 vacant/irrelevant oldposts, 68 new posts will be created for various cadres, including IT, Accounts,Labour Inspector and Legal cadre. It wasalso decided by the Cabinet to consider all posts in Group-D as dying cadre.
The Technical Education & Industrial Training departmentwill see 84 new posts being created against 271 non-essential or vacant posts,while as many as 81 posts of Service Provider Trainers will be re-designated asGroup Instructors in the same scale. Of these, 53 posts will be used asAssistant Apprenticeship Advisor (Junior) and the rest as Group Instructors.The posts of Group-D lying vacant since long would be filled by outsourcing.
Under the restructuring proposal okayed for the PWD (B&R)department, the critical Design Cell will be now headed by a Chief Engineer,supported by Superintending Engineer (DRD), 4 XENs and 12 SDEs. The Design Cellwould be responsible for designing of buildings, bridges and roads, to beconstructed with latest techniques and technologies. Also, the existing systemof Quality Control will be upgraded by increasing the three regional labs underthe Deputy Director Research Lab Patiala. The Quality Assurance Mechanism Cellwould consist of Chief Engineer (QA-cum-CVO), SE (QA-cum-SVO), 5 XENs-cum-VO,Deputy Director Research Lab and 10 SDEs.
Apart from this, to handle the establishment casesefficiently amid the increased work load, in place of one Chief Engineer therewill now be Chief Engineers duly supported by two Deputy Directors(Administration). The newly created Legal Cell will handle the manifoldincrease in litigation, with posts of Senior Law Officer, Law Superintendent,Law Officer, Sr. Assistant Law and Law Clerk approved for the purpose. Further,35 posts of IT professionals have also been approved, each with a defined roleand objective to support and run the IT applications in PWD (B&R).
As a part of restructuring of Animal Husbandry, Fisheries& Dairy Development Department, the creation of 326 posts will help fill alarge number of vacancies while doing away with some of the non-essential postsamong the existing 625. Of this, 264 will be in Animal Husbandry, 19 inFisheries and 43 in Dairy Development. Besides, all the vacant Group-D postsshall be considered as abolished.
As per the restructuring plan of Tourism, Cultural Affairs,Archaeology, Museum & Archives department, in place of 53 posts, of whichmany are lying vacant, 20 new ones will be created, while 87 vacant posts,including 67 Group D posts, will be filled through outsourcing.
As a part of its restructuring strategy, the LocalGovernment department has been allowed by the Cabinet to create 23 postsagainst 49 earlier ones.
The Cabinet also gave the go-ahead to create four new postsbesides filling up 30 posts as a part of restructuring in the Printing andStationery Department. The need for restructuring in the department arose afterthe old technique of letter-press printing in the Government Presses at Patialaand Mohali, Government Type-writer workshop and Government Ticket PrintingPress, Patiala was done away with.
Under the restructuring plan of Sports & Youth ServicesDepartment, the Cabinet gave concurrence to replace 69 non-essential posts with42 new posts as per requirement, taking into cognisance the importance ofcoaches for improving the training of sportspersons in the state. The posts ofGroup-D lying vacant since long would also be filled by outsourcing.
The Cabinet also gave the nod to the Defence ServicesWelfare Department to create 23 posts, while doing away with 49 posts, underits restructuring proposal to further improve its efficiency and delivery ofservices.
As a part of restructuring of Cooperation Department, theCabinet accorded approval to increase of 93 posts, including two audit officers, 75senior auditors, six superintendent grade-2 and 10 senior assistants, forexpediting the audit work, while cutting down 120 posts of Inspector Auditagainst the total sanctioned posts of774 and one post of driver against three approved posts of drivers.