By H H Mohrmen
I empathize with the youths who had cleared the test for the post of Gram Sevikas conducted by the District Selection Committee but were not appointed. Because of that the young men and women had to unnecessarily suffer for no fault of theirs. The youths had protested and even went for a hunger strike to demand their rights. Unfortunately they had to resign to their fates and all their efforts to clear the DSC test and all the agitations they had endured has gone in vain.
They youths gave up the fight for their rights when the Minister in Charge, Community and Rural Development citing a Supreme Court judgment on a special leave petition in the case of Arup Das and others versus the State of Assam and others of January 27, 2012 as a reason for the government not being able to appoint them. But the fact is that there is also another side to the story. In fact there is more to the appointment in the government departments than meets the eye.
The ruling categorically states that the District Selection Committees (DSC) and Public Service Commission (PSC) should not make any recommendations for appointment beyond the number of posts made public in the advertisement. Acting on the judgment the Commissioner and Secretary to the government of Meghalaya, Personnel and Administrative Reforms (B) Department as per letter No: PE (AR) 17/2012/27 dated Shillong, the 18th July 2012 directed all departments that filling up of vacancies should only be done on the recommendation of the DSC and the PSC and that the number of vacancies in the respective departments are to be informed to the respective DSCs and PSC.
But my more than one year experience in filing RTIs for those candidates who had cleared their DSC selection tests reveal something else. When the candidates who had cleared the test conducted by the DSC West Jaintia Hills District in 2014 requested me to seek information regarding availability of vacancy in the various departments by using RTI, skeletons started coming out of the cupboards of almost all departments in West Jaintia hills district. More than one hundred RTIs were filed in the entire West Jaintia hills district in twelve months (perhaps a record of sorts). To our surprise we found that there were so many vacancies that not only the entire merit list but still more vacancies were available for the DSC to make call for fresh advertisements. The numbers of vacant posts far exceed those advertised by the DSC WJH because departments did not inform about the vacancies to the DSC. Only when RTI was filed did the vacancies start to appear from the cupboards of various departments. The question is what happened to these posts earlier? Why were the vacancies available not communicated to the DSC in the first place?
The Department’s reply to the RTI application revealed that some government departments in West Jaintia hills had not informed about the vacancies to the DSC and in some cases the posts were kept vacant without intimating the concerned authority for years together. This was done to facilitate a system of nepotism where top officials and politicians would fill up the vacancies with their favourites. Hence ad-hoc appointments continued in spite of government directives. The RTI no doubt helped bring to light these vacancies, but there are some departments which we suspect have provided us incomplete and wrong information.
In more than twelve month of bombarding the various departments with RTI applications more than fifty posts in various grades from almost every department have appeared. To our surprise there are cases where some of these jobs had been lying vacant (on temporary appointment) for more than five years without intimating the DSC.
Now is there any punitive action against officers who choose not to inform about the vacant posts in their offices to the DSC? No doubt now the district administration can find out how many ad-hoc appointments have been made from the district database but again the question is what if the department chooses not to inform of the vacancy? The RTI findings have only proved that this practice is prevalent in WJHD and the Secretary of the DSC can do nothing to compel the officer to report about the vacant posts.
There are also departments which continue to appoint people to the vacant posts without the recommendation of the DSC despite the directives from the department of Personnel. The department of Personnel and ADMV Reforms (B) vide its letter No. PER (AR)153/93/Pt.I/121 Dtd. Shillong, the 23rd May 2013 on the subject of ‘Banning of ad hoc/temporary appointment in Government Department/Offices, had banned any kind of appointment without the recommendation of the DSC or the MPSC as the case may be. But sad to say that there are departments in West Jaintia hills which still made illegal appointment despite this ban.
There is also a peculiar case and perhaps fishy appointment in the fisheries department of West Jaintia hills district. The funny case reveals that in spite of the fact that the number of vacancies of field demonstrators had been informed to the DSC, the department later withdrew the posts. And when information was sought as to the reason for withdrawing the posts, the District Fisheries Officer’s reply was the he is the final appointing authority. The officer did not deny that there are few posts of field demonstrators lying vacant in his office. Now a layman like me was made to understand through many government’s order and directives that all appointment to government offices can only be made on the recommendation of the DSCs or the MPSC but how can the directors make arbitrary appointments? Os this not nepotism? How can the Director appoint personnel by transferring them from one district to another when the post is to be appointed by the respective DSC where the office is located? The question then is whether the recent appointments made in the District Fisheries Office West Jaintia hills are legal?
The District Fisheries Department is not the only department which continues with this practice. From the RTI findings we have learnt that the office of the Assistant Director of Information and Public Relations, Jowai also still continues with this practice.
There are also alleged illegal appointments in the office of District Medical and Health Officers without the recommendation of either the DSC of the MPSC. What about these sort of appointments which deny the qualified candidates the right to even apply for the job? The government should stop this kind of appointment once and for all because it illegal and it is against the fundamental rights of the citizen to equality as prescribed in the Constitution.
There are also department in West Jaintia hills like the office of the District Agriculture officer which as per the Department’s reply to the RTI application is still entertaining appointments on compassionate grounds although the same was stopped by the government.
One may ask how this is related to the candidates who had cleared the DSC selection test. The fact is that I would not be surprised if illegal ad hoc appointments are still prevalent even in the Department of Community and Rural Department (C&RD). And these kind of illegal ad hoc appointments patronized by politicians is denying those candidates who had cleared the tests conducted by the DSC their right to job.
In more than one year of campaigning for those who had cleared their DSC examination in West Jaintia hills I had also become wiser. I realized that the introduction of database through which all the government accounts are channelized can also be used to check the illegal appointments in any government department. When this practice was brought to the notice of the then DC Jowai, P S Dkhar he used the database office to force certain departments in Jowai to comply and inform the vacancies to the DSC. The government can come up with a directive giving the DC the authority to stop payment to any department found making illegal appointments. This will stop ad hoc appointments without the recommendation of DSCs of MPSC.