The Capital’s bureaucracy has reached out to its counterparts at the Centre seeking assistance for a common cause: requesting that they chip in for the relatively smoother conduct of weekly recruitment exams to fill up glaring vacancies in its six-tier hierarchy of government officials.
In the wake of members of the Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS) Association alleging that they were being singled out and subjected to “partiality” in relation to the duties being assigned to them at examination centres each weekend, the Delhi Subordinate Service Selection Board (DSSSB) has written to each Ministry at the Centre to nominate “willing officers/officials” for the formation of a common panel to help shoulder the burden rotationally.
“For smooth conduct of these exams there is requirement of officers/officials for their deployment at various level as Overall In-charge, Observer, Chief Invigilator and Invigilator. DSSSB is in the process to prepare a panel of willing officers/officials working in Ministries/Departments of Government of India for the same...” the communication, accessed by The Hindu, stated.
As reported by The Hindu on September 5, the association, which claimed a victory or sorts in light of the communication, had called on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash over the issue and consider expanding the pool of officials being given invigilators’ duties.
DANICS officials had been consistently complaining that they were “being stripped of their dignity” by being asked to perform duties beneath their “seniority, level of experience and long-standing commitment to government service” and were mulling silent protests to demand an “equal and dignified work environment.”
While the top reaches of its bureaucracy are almost full, glaring shortages abound in mid-level and subordinate posts in the Delhi government, which together account for vacancies amounting to around 46% of its sanctioned strength, as per data accessed by The Hindu through a Right to Information (RTI) query.
Of the almost 13,000 posts sanctioned for it at posts from IAS, DANICS and four levels of the Delhi Administrative Subordinate Services, a little over 54% are occupied. The total number of posts sanctioned across the Delhi government are 12,754; of these, 6,954, or 54.52%, are occupied while 5,800, or 45.48%, are vacant as per Services Department data compiled till July 5, 2018.
The exams, meanwhile, according to the communication, were being held offline on Sundays and online on some weekdays and Saturdays and officials could be posted for deployment for any exam on any given day in lieu of approved remuneration to provide their services.
According to the eligibility criteria, as per the communication, Under Secretary/Deputy Secretary/Director level officials were eligible to perform duties of Overall In-Charge of such centres, Section Officers and Desk Officers could perform the duties of Observer/Chief Invigilator and Assistant Section Officer/Senior Assistant/Junior Assistant could be deployed as Invigilators.
At its meeting with the Chief Secretary, the association had submitted that the pool from which officials were being culled for deployment duties currently existed of around 60 to 70 officials, mainly from the DANICS cadre.