Mumbai: The Maharashtra government is planning to reduce its workforce by 30 percent as part of efforts to reduce its wage bill. The government has sent notices to all departments and asked them to submit a new plan featuring a trimmed workforce by year-end.
The state government had passed a resolution to cut jobs in May.
Currently, the government has 17 lakh employees and the annual wage bill amounts to around Rs 1.08 lakh crore annually.
Today’s Rate
Tuesday 12 Nov. 2024
The wage burden is expected to increase with the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission. Besides this, other reasons for the reduced workforce include digitisation, outsourcing and computerisation of processes, media reports.
“This is not a job cut. The nature of work is changing,” Deepak Kesarkar, Minister of State for the Finance Department told the newspaper. “Several posts have become redundant. Many new posts too have become necessary. Hence, it is necessary to develop new patterns of employment. This is an administrative exercise aimed at good governance.”
So far, only three ministries have submitted plans — Rural Development, Minority Affairs and Water Resources.
Federation of Gazetted Officers’ have opposed the move saying that more than 2 lakh jobs are lying vacant and that certain departments are already facing severe staff crunch.
Job cuts, Kesarkar said, will be decided by departments on the basis of current staff size and the manpower requirements.
The Maharashtra BJP was left red-faced after someone tweeted from its official handle criticising the government after the news on jobs cut broke.
BJP spokesperson Keshav Upadhye later told reporter that the Twitter account was hacked to post this message and that the police is investigating the matter.
