Even as his government on Monday decided to ease recruitment rules to plug certain long-pending vacancies, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh ordered immediate steps to fill up a whopping 19000 vacancies in various departments.The vacancies to be filled up on priority include 5000 in the Police department, 5300 in Electricity department (PSPCL), 2500 teachers, 5000 paramedic and specialized staff, including doctors and specialists, in Health Department and 1300 in Revenue department. The Chief Minister has also asked the other departments to submit their lists of vacancies without delay so that the process of filling them up could also be initiated immediately.While bringing more efficiencies into the concerned departments, the move will also generate additional employment in the state, which has witnessed the creation of significant job opportunities through a series of job melas and other initiatives in the past two years, said an official spokesperson after a meeting of the state cabinet, chaired by the chief minister.The Chief Minister’s directives came even as the Council of Ministers decided to ease the recruitment rules for qualified civil services personnel in the state through amendments to various relevant legislations, thus paving the way for filling posts that remain vacant due to non-availability of suitable candidates. The decision would help resolve the issues related to allocation of services on the basis of Punjab State Civil Services Combined Examination.
According to an official spokesperson, the Council of Ministers approved the proposals mooted by the Personnel Department to bring necessary amendments in the draft notifications of Rule 4 (2) of the Punjab Recruitment of Ex-Servicemen Rules, 1982, Rule 3 (2) of the Punjab Recruitment of Sportsman Rules, 1988, Rule 5 of Punjab State Civil Services (Appointment by Combined Competitive Examination) Rules, 2009 besides insertion of Rule 10 (A) in the Punjab State Civil Services (Appointment by Combined Competitive Examination) Rules, 2009.The Cabinet also authorized the Chief Minister to approve the final draft of the rules, said the spokesperson.It may be noted that, in pursuant to the conduct of Punjab Civil Services Combined Competitive Examination-2018, the Punjab Public Service Commission had forwarded the merit lists of candidates to the Government for allocation of services to 72 posts that had been advertised. These included Punjab Civil Services (Executive Branch), Deputy Superintendent of Police, Excise & Taxation Officers, Tehsildar, Food Supply Officer, Block Development & Panchayats Officer, Labour-cum-Conciliation Officer and Employment Generation & Training Officer. Of these, 17 reserved posts remained unfilled due to non-availability of candidates, following which PPSC urged the Government to get them posts filled after taking appropriate decision. The government was informed that similar situations had also occurred in the past since the Rules/Instructions governing such situations were not very clear.Under the existing rules, different categories of vacant posts, such as those reserved SCs, Balmiki and Mazhabi Sikh and General Category Sportsmen and Ex-Servicemen, were being treated differently. There was ambiguity on whether the unfilled posts of ex-servicemen and sports quota from Balmiki and Mazhabi Sikh category were to be filled from General Pool of Balmiki and Mazhabi Sikh or from General pool of all SC Candidates.Such situations led to prolonged litigations regarding filling up of these posts. In view of these circumstances, the Personnel Department had proposed that the Rules and Instructions may be modified to make these clear, logical and consistent across all categories of posts, and ensure that the interests of SCs and BCs are duly protected.