Now, state to go for 1-year contractual recruitment

HT, 27 Nov 2016, Kolkata: Caught in the middle of a severe fund crunch that does not allow large scale staff recruitment and a severe shortage of staff in several departments, the Bengal government has come out with a unique way to keep the work going for shortstaffed departments. The state government has decided to appoint retired state government staff and officials on a contractual basis, as per a recent notification by the state finance department.

A retired employee may be engaged on a contractual basis beyond 64 years of age but not beyond 65. “Such engagement shall not be made as a matter of course but in case of extreme necessity,” the notification read.

Sources said several departments have complained of severe shortage of staff which makes the department to function and complete time-bound assignments extremely difficult.

“In such a situation, several departments or allied offices of the state government have demanded immediate filling up of the vacancies or at least part filling up of vacancies.

However, the state finance department has clearly said that considering the cash-strapped situation of the state exchequer, where the state government has to borrow at regular intervals to pay salaries, wages and retirement benefits, filling up of the vacancies is impossible.

So in such a situation, this decision to appoint retired employees on a contractual basis,” a state government official said. He confirmed that the retired employees who will be inducted on contractual will receive a fixed remuneration and will not be entitled to any other benefit like the existing regular employees.