Maharashtra govt puts end to contract hiring via outsourcing

Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis at Vidhan Bhavan. File pic/Atul Kamble

The Eknath Shinde-led government has overruled the previous government's decision to hire employees on a contractual basis through outsourcing. It scrapped a government resolution (GR) of the Uddhav Thackeray regime that had empanelled nine private facility agencies for 15 years. Denying the Opposition's charge that it was hiring hands on contract, the government said the practice was first started by the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government in 2003.

Hiring is an issue that the Opposition has raised through a protest march of unemployed youth. "The people who are guilty of starting hiring on a contractual basis are now making more noise and misleading the youth. The first such hiring was done by the education department in 2003. The Congress and Sharad Pawar's NCP were in power then," said Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also clarified the government's stand on hiring manpower from the state security corporation for the Mumbai police, which faced a staff crunch.

According to Fadnavis, GRs were issued during the chief ministership of Ashok Chavan, Prithviraj Chavan and Uddhav Thackeray. He said even BTech and BE graduates were contracted for government jobs. He said the government had scrapped the GR that Thackeray's regime had issued to empanel nine private agencies for hiring.

"When it came to us, I pointed out that the rate approved was 25 per cent higher. Our cabinet reduced the rate, and now we have scrapped the decision because it does not suit our policy. Why should we carry the burden of their [Maha Vikas Aghadi's] sins?" he told a news conference on Friday. He said the departments that needed to create temporary jobs would be allowed to hire on a contractual basis.

Fadnavis asked whether Pawar, Thackeray and the Congress would apologise to the people for creating a fake narrative. "If they don't, we will expose them."

About the Mumbai police, he said the personnel trained by the state security corporation were inducted through the police recruitment process.

"Those who can't enter the police are inducted into the security corporation. They will not be policing in Mumbai, but doing a job they are trained for. They will be there till a batch of 7,000 personnel complete their police training and join the Mumbai force," he added.

The home minister said the police vacancies were much higher because there was recruitment in the past three years.

Ex-home minister disputes claims

Former Home Minister Anil Deshmukh contested Fadnavis's claims. "How can personnel train for a security guard's [watchman] job do a policeman's job? Fadnavis should answer this. The youth have been preparing for the police recruitment, but they don't stand a chance, because there is no recruitment drive," he said from Nagpur.

Deshmukh claimed that the GRs were scrapped only because of the protest and pressure that was mounted after the district collector of Jalgaon had published a notice to appoint a tehsildar and naib tehsildar on contract. "How can such senior officers be hired on contract?" asked Deshmukh.

Fadnavis exposed Ajit, Shinde: Patole

State Congress chief Nana Patole asked why didn't Fadnavis cancel the GR on contractual recruitment when he was the CM for five years. "Contractual recruitment had sparked anger among the unemployed. The Congress stood firmly behind the youth and exposed the BJP government, which has buckled under pressure to scrap it," he said.

Patole said Ajit Pawar was the deputy chief minister in the Congress alliance government when the GR was issued, and the current CM Eknath Shinde was a minister during the Fadnavis government and the MVA government. "It seems that Fadnavis has passed on the responsibility of hiring people on a contract basis to Shinde and Pawar. Fadnavis should be congratulated for exposing Shinde and Pawar," stated Patole.

According to the Congress leader, though his party's government had hired people on contract, the employees were later absorbed into government service. "However, the current job recruitment is done by a private company. Most importantly, Fadnavis was the CM between 2014 and 2019. Why didn't he cancel the Congress government's GR then? It has been 18 months since the Shinde government came to power and yet it delayed the scrapping."

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No of pvt agencies empanelled by MVA govt