Heard of posts like bullock man, water man, calf boy, timekeeper, insect collector, binder or ‘tapal’ orderly?
These are some of the posts, carried over from the colonial era, that continue to remain, on paper in the Cadre and Recruitment rules, in some of the government departments in Karnataka.
Over the last three decades, much might have changed in governance, with IT tools and automation playing a big part. But, what has failed to keep up with the changes are the C&R rules that govern employment of State government officials.
Posts, introduced several decades ago and which since become redundant, continue to be part of the cadre in several departments.
On the other hand, new posts/cadres that have become imperative owing to changes in recent times continue to stay outside the cadre.
This, a senior official pointed out, is due to the fact that for nearly three decades several crucial departments, including Education, Revenue, Excise and Legal Metrology, continue to function under archaic C&R rules.
“What this means is that though education has taken a leap forward with the introduction of new courses to keep up with the demand in private sector, most of these degrees are not considered as appropriate for government job. Even the needs of the government has also changed over the years and a review of C&R rules will help fill up specialised posts,” an official said.
Part of the problem is the non-revision of cadre and recruitment rules every three years as mandated. There have been government orders laying down the guidelines to be followed in framing C&R rules and reviewing them once in three years.
In fact, in October, 2004, the government had issued a GO explicitly stating this. Circulars had been issued to departments to review the rules in 2008, 2011 and 2015.
However, there has been some action at the department level since December 2017 when the government started taking a fresh look at the cadre and posts when current Chief Secretary and then Additional Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar issued a circular asking departments to review the rules. He had specifically pointed out at Education, Revenue and Excise departments, which are following C&R rules framed 25 to 30 years ago.
Another senior official in the State administration acknowledged that since the cadre and recruitment rules had not changed for several years, it was coming in the way of appointments.
“For example, we are unable to hire a B.Sc. Computer science/ applications graduate for IT work since only B.E. graduates are part of C&R rules in some departments. While a B.Sc. graduate cannot be hired under the current rule, a B.E. graduate is hard to get for a government job. The result is that the position will remain vacant and finally a consultant from outside will be hired to finish the job.”
Officials in the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) acknowledged the problem. “These changes are also very laborious and have to go through multiple committees before they are incorporated. Cadres of several departments have been reviewed already and many are still under way. It is a continuous process,” the official said.