New Delhi: The government seems to be clueless on how many of the backlog vacancies reserved for SC/ST/OBCs are filled in the ‘autonomous institutes’ under the Ministry of Science and Technology, an RTI reveals. There are 26 autonomous bodies under the Department of Science and Technology (DST) spread across the country governed by the bye-laws.
An RTI filed by Reji AP from Kerala asked, “How many vacancies were identified and filled in DST and its autonomous bodies according to the special recruitment drive by the central government to fill the backlog reservation seats of SC/ST/OBC from November 2008 to 31st March 2012?”
The 2008 order required that “attached offices/subordinate offices/autonomous bodies, public sector undertakings should not send report direct to this Department.”
They were expected to send the information to the concerned ministry/department which would consolidate the information and send it forward.
But unable to provide any information on filling the backlog, DST did not comply to the main order of collating information from the concerned departments and autonomous bodies.
The DST in a reply to the RTI said “On vacancies reserved for SCs/STs/OBCs in autonomous institutions under DST it is intimated that there is no mention about the autonomous bodies in the DoPT’s 2013 order.”
News 18 contacted the former secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Welfare, PS Krishnan, who termed the reply by DST as “improper.”
“It is the duty of every department, ministry to collect from all the autonomous bodies’ information on reservation,” Krishnan said.
He added, “It is their duty to implement the constitutional mandate of equality, ensuring that SC/ST/ OBCS are represented in every cadre, in the proportion prescribed, and to say that there is no information is an irresponsible reply.”
News 18 is in possession of the copy of the order by the Department of Personnel and Training sent out to DST in 2013 regarding the filling up of backlog vacancies reserved for SC/ST/OBC. The order calls for a special recruitment drive for filling the backlog vacancies, launched in 2008.
“The Government considered the filling up of backlog vacancies reserved for SCs/STs/OBCs and desired that concerted efforts be made to fill up the backlog vacancies at the earliest,” letter undersigned by G Srinivasan, Deputy Secretary, Government of India said. The letter also said that the status of action was being monitored at the highest level.
All the ministries and departments were requested to take follow-up action on the decision taken by the government and submit quarterly reports to the Department for monitoring the progress of implementation of these directions.
But DST has no reply to give with regards to “autonomous bodies” backlog.
As reported by various ministries and departments, on its conclusion revealed that out of total 75,522 identified backlog vacancies, there were 64,175 backlog vacancies, which could be filled up. Out of these, 48,035 vacancies were filled up. Overall success rate of the drive was 74.85%.
“Lack of finishing skills like English fluency or interview skills, non-availability of qualified reserved category candidates for posts requiring professional qualification especially in ST category, scarcity of qualified reserved category persons results in job switch over or not joining after selection as they get better jobs and in some cases selection is done on all India basis whereas allocation is made zone/State wise,” could be attributed as the lag in filling up of vacancies.
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