No feverish pace, government recruitments frozen for the last 6 months

The economic slowdown triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown has forced the state government to freeze recruitments.
No feverish pace, government recruitments frozen for the last 6 months

BENGALURU: The economic slowdown triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown has forced the state government to freeze recruitments. Over the last six to seven months, except for essential medical services, all other appointments have been put on hold. At the same time, the government is also downsizing departments and pruning all unnecessary posts to reduce the financial burden.The state has 72 departments, including agriculture, home, urban development, health, tourism, education, food and civil supply, power, water resources, excise and medical education. Over 5.3 lakh regular employees and 1.5 lakh contract staffers work in these departments. 

Karnataka State Government Employees’ Association president C S Shadakshari said that at present, 2.6 lakh posts are vacant in various departments, but they have not been filled. He said there have been instances of aspirants writing the exam and getting the results but still waiting for appointment orders, some departments have invited applications but have not progressed further and in some departments, tests have been conducted but no results announced, he said.

Taking tightening of the belt a step further, the government constituted a cabinet sub-committee on administration headed by Revenue Minister R Ashoka in May to look at downsizing “unnecessary posts” that are draining its financial resources. The Committee has not met as the government’s entire focus over the last six months has been on fighting Covid. However, the members are interacting with heads of departments to identify and do away with such posts. They will also soon hold discussions with former chief secretaries and review Harnahalli Ramaswamy report on administrative reforms to chalk out a plan to trim departments.

Ashoka told The New Indian Express that over the years, officials have plotted to create unnecessary posts. Earlier, there were fewer departments, but now there are many, and one of the reasons for it was to create more posts to allow promotions for more officials. For instance, there is one chief engineer for one department or region and if it is divided, more chief engineers’ posts can be created, and the government has to pay more for such posts. In some departments there is excess staff, while in others there are vacancies. “When we merge departments, the staff position will even out, and the government does not need to recruit more. We are also looking at reviewing the Harnahalli Ramaswamy Committee report. These exercises are needed to reduce financial burden on the state,’’ he said.

The Covid pandemic has had a big impact on the private sector too with both big companies and smaller manufacturing units laying off employees. C R Janardhana, president, Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI), said that over the last six months, no major recruitments have taken place across sectors, except in the pharma industry. But with the country and state coming out of the lockdown and business picking up, the job market too should see a revival, he said.

K S Vishwanathan, vice-president (Industries Initiatives), NASSCOM, said that economic slowdown has not had much impact on IT industries. “It neither went up, nor fell. In fact, companies that offered campus recruitment last year have honoured their commitments. We have not heard of any major layoffs. Some sectors like aerospace and leisure have experienced slowdown, while demand has picked up in health, energy, automobile, electronics and telecom sectors. We are optimistic that the economy will bounce back in the next one or two quarters,” he said.

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