GUWAHATI, June 29: Assam Public Works (APW), a city-based NGO, has urged chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to ensure a transparent and flawless recruitment drive in order to avoid “loopholes” that surfaced during the appointment processes under previous governments in the state.
APW, the original petitioner in the Supreme Court that led to the update of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam seven years back, has in a memorandum to the chief minister on Tuesday, urged the government to ensure that candidates applying for the vacant posts are not charged any application fee.
“We have taken note of the government’s efforts to fill up one lakh vacancies across departments under the state finance minister’s supervision. However, we request you to ensure that no application fee is charged from the job aspirants. Along with it, we urge you to ensure that the interviews/written tests of two or more departments are not held simultaneously and that the entire process is conducted in a transparent and technically-sound manner,” APW president, Aabhijeet Sharma stated in the memorandum.
It may be noted that several departments have so far submitted a status of 80,000 vacant posts to the high-power committee, led by the state finance minister, constituted to identify vacancies and provide jobs to one lakh youths in a year.
A core committee led by the chief secretary was constituted in the second meeting of the high-power committee on Monday.
“We request you to ensure that the job aspirants are appointed on merit and that only organisations with credibility are given the contract/role of conducting the examinations,” Sharma stated.
“Besides, care should be taken that ‘loopholes’ in recruitment processes of the panchayat and rural development department, water resources department and the fisheries department emerging under previous governments or the sub-inspector question paper leak scam are avoided,” he said.
The APW president further urged the chief minister to constitute a vigilance committee led by high-level officers of Assam Police to independently take decisions while supervising the conduct of the exams and to take the onus of addressing any allegation of corruption in the recruitment process.
“Such a committee should also ensure that the appointments are not influenced by political circles or middlemen. If needed, a decision to form such a vigilance committee to monitor the entire recruitment process can be taken in a Cabinet meeting,” he stated.