Reiterating its `no vendetta politics’ stand, the Punjab government on Friday said it had decided to give employment letters to 857 canal department patwaris purely on merit, just as it had recently revoked the appointments of several anganwadi workers for lacking in transparency.
Both the decisions, said an official spokesperson, were part of the review process undertaken by the Captain Amarinder Singh government on all appointments/decisions taken by the erstwhile Badal government in the last few months of its misrule.The spokesperson ridiculed the Akali leadership for seeking to give a nonsensical interpretation to the government’s decision to give the long-pending letters to the patwaris. The Badals seem to be desperate to show that they had done something good, in the interest of the state and its people, during their tenure, he said, adding that their statements smacked of total frustration in the face of all-round criticism of their 10-year rule of Punjab.While prima facie, the appointments of the patwaris were found to be in order, those of many of the anganwadi workers appointed by the previous government were, as a result of a departmental inquiry, found to be suffering from serious irregularities. It had been decided, therefore, to scrap those, said the spokesperson.
The Chief Minister had directed the Department of Social Security and Child & Women Development to thoroughly examine the dubious appointments and take suitable action accordingly, he added. Captain Amarinder had asked the department to ensure that total transparency is maintained in the fresh recruitment process.Giving details, the spokesperson said the SAD-BJP government had filled up vacancies of 49 workers and 25 helpers in the 114 anganwadi centres in the state. In addition, it had started the process of recruitment of anganwadi workers at the 545 mini centres. While the 153 appointments made earlier appeared to be in order, the remaining 391, which were completed at the fag-end of the erstwhile government rule, had been revoked due to gross irregularities found in them, he added.The Captain Amarinder government, said the spokesperson, was committed to ensuring jobs in the state, which was suffering from a huge unemployment problem and would not take away jobs from the deserving candidates unless their appointments were found to be violating the law or against public probity.