Mumbai: In the wake of a growing unrest among the unemployed youths, the Maharashtra Government on Friday decided to scrap the Government Resolution for contractual recruitments in various government departments. The government also said it has no plans to make contractual recruitments in the police force.
Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said, “The concept and process of contractual recruitment, including empanelment of nine agencies complete with the tender process, was introduced during the Maha Vikas Aghadi Government led by former Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. The decision was taken after consultation among alliance partners Shiv Sena, Congress and NCP.”
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“When the matter came before the Eknath Shinde-led Cabinet, I raised objections over the inflated rates awarded to the private agencies for contractual recruitment. As a result, the rates were brought down by 25 per cent,” he added.
“Congress, NCP and the Shiv Sena (UBT), which introduced this contractual recruitment drive concept, have the audacity to accuse us of contractual recruitment,” Fadnavis lashed out, adding, “It is evident that they are using the issue to generate unrest amongst the youths to serve political interests.”
“Why should we own up to their sin? Why should we own up their decision and invite flak? Therefore, we have decided to scrap contractual recruitment in government jobs. We will disengage the nine agencies which were awarded contracts to recruit for government jobs by the Thackeray government,” Fadnavis informed.
Fadnavis outlined the details of how the decision to employ contractual recruitment was done during the MVA Government. He also showed documents bearing Thackeray’s signature on the decision.
Fadnavis also issued a chronology to establish how the decision was arrived at by Thackeray and Sharad Pawar.
- On September 1, 2021 an RPF draft for contract recruitment was given the nod.
- On September 2, 2021, it was uploaded on the Mahatender portal.
- On September 9, 2021, a pre tender meeting was held. January 31, 2022 was the last date for filing the tender.
- On February 1, 2022, the tenders were opened.
- On February 23, 2022, the technical evaluation was made public on the state-owned portal.
- On April 8, 2022, the commercial tender opened.
- On April 25, 2022, a meeting with private agencies was held.
- Another meeting with the agencies was held on April 27, 2022 to negotiate the deal.
- On May 23, 2022, the finance department gave the nod.
“During this entire period as mentioned, it was the Uddhav Thackeray-led government. And every decision taken had Sharad Pawar’s consent,” Fadnavis asserted. He also pointed out that the process of contract recruitment was done even during the Congress-NCP regime.
“When Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde was the Chief Minister, he had adopted the contractual recruitment for Sarvashiksha Abhiyan in 2003. In 2010, Congress CM Ashok Chavan used contractual recruitments to fill up 400 posts of data entry operators, drivers, technical staff etc. Another 600 posts were filled using the same mode during Chavan’s tenure. It included accountants, project coordinators, peons and special teachers,” Fadnavis said.
“Even Prithviraj Chavan used contractual recruitment during his regime. On January 14, 2011, it was used for Sarvashiksha Abhiyan and as many as 405 posts for MIS coordinators and 405 posts for data entry operators were filled,” the Deputy CM said.
Fadnavis, who also holds the Home portfolio, took serious objection to the Opposition’s charge that the police recruitments were being done through contractual recruitment. “In the wake of a shortage of police personnel, the State Government decided to get 3,000 persons from the Maharashtra State Suraksha Mahamandal, which is a state government-owned body,” he said.
According to Fadnavis, “During Thackeray’s regime, there was no recruitment in the police force. As a result, there is a shortage of 18,331 police persons. After taking charge in June 2022, we reviewed the entire situation and initiated the process. But the entire process of shortlisting candidates and training them requires one and half years. Moreover, there was no facility to impart training to 18,000 persons at one time. So, our task was to expand the training facilities.”
Slamming Pawar, Fadnavis said, “A senior leader like Sharad Pawar is making such false claims against the government. We can understand he is disturbed ever since his party split. But there is a limit to what extent you play politics.”
