Chandigarh, July 26
As the Punjab Government sets in motion the process of restructuring various departments, employees are preparing to open another front against the government.
As a part of the restructuring exercise, the government wanted first to shut down 11 branches in various departments in the Civil Secretariat like education cell, election branch, local government branch, consumer act branch, merging of JCM branch with advisory council branch, merging of record retention branch with administrative reforms branch, merger of training branch with staff institute and department of secretariat branch, and the presenting officer branch.
Official sources said today that the Department of General Administration had asked for comments from the Administrative Secretaries concerned in this connection till July 30. The decision to restructure various departments had been taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Subcommittee on April 24.
The official letter sent to the Administrative Secretaries says that as the workload of these branches is light, these have been shortlisted for merger into other branches. However, what has sent shockwaves among employees is their apprehension that through restructuring , the government has started the process of declaring the staff surplus in various departments.
Mr Roshan Lal Goel, General Secretary of the Punjab Civil Secretariat Staff Association, said with the merger of these branches, approximately two Under Secretaries, 11 Superintendents, 44 assistants, 22 clerks, 10 stenographers and other class IV employees would become surplus. “ That is not acceptable to us. We would not allow the process to be completed”, threatened Mr Goel.
Another former senior leader of the association said that the process should have been started from the IAS cadre. There were only 95 sanctioned IAS posts. If 10 per cent cut is imposed on these posts, as has been decided by the government, the strength would come down to 86 only. However, the existing number of these officers was near 190. The officers who are not part of the sanctioned strength should be sent to the Centre. Each IAS officer costs around Rs 2 lakh per month. Likewise, IPS officers should be sent to the Centre. Why the axe was being wielded against lower-level functionaries of the government ? If junior-level employees can be declared surplus and sent to the common pool, then why the same criteria cannot be followed in case of IAS and IPS officers? he asked.
As per an
estimate, there are about 30 to 40 employees surplus in government departments. They are supposed to be identified and sent to the common pool by the authorities concerned as a part of implementation of the decision of April 24 meeting. Besides, their redeployment, there is also a proposal to offer voluntary retirement to them. Those who do not accept what is offered to them by the government will be liable to be terminated in due course.
On the other hand, the government is also moving fast to dispose of sick public undertakings and disinvest those earning good profit such as Punjab Tractors Limited.
