news details |
|
|
| Operation influencing assembly elections out come chalked out by ruling partners | | Offering 70,000 jobs, releasing withheld old age pensions | | Early Times Special Correspondent
Jammu | Mar 11
News Analysis
The ruling coalition partners in the state have chalked out a comprehensive plan of action to influence the out come of polls to be held towards this year end. Realizing that the extension of loan waiver scheme to the farmers to J&K, including brining horticulturists under its ambit in this state being not sufficient to influence the voters, the government is contemplating to offer job packet as election bait, to offset the adverse affect of incumbency factor.
The government has kept at hold the recruitment for government jobs, as an election strategy. The coalition government wants to sell these jobs as an employment package two to three months before the elections, to bolster its chances of winning the same. There are nearly 30,000 jobs in different government departments to be filled and notifications for some of these jobs have already been published in newspapers. The government, wide its order number 266 GAD of 2008 issued on March 5, has directed all the administrative departments to stop referring job vacancies to the government recruiting agencies like the State Public Service Commission for gazated jobs and Service Selection Recruitment Board for non gazated jobs. It has also directed the Deputy Development Commissioners of different districts for not issuing advertisement notices for job vacancies referred to them. The order further directs that interviews for the post already advertise shall be kept on hold till further orders.
The Deputy Chief Minister, Muzaffar Hussain Baig had recently announced jobs for 70,000 unemployed youth before elections, obviously to give an edge to the PDP, by announcing the job package first and creating an impression that the jobs have been created and are being offered to the unemployed youth, on the initiative of the PDP. This is expected to earn the PDP electoral dividends in the forthcoming elections to the state assembly. By deferring the filling of vacancies and releasing the same little before the elections the government wants to derive some political mileage.
According to the sources the government is trying to mop up around 50,000 vacancies, including those already referred to the recruitment agencies and intense to fill these vacancies through fast-track mechanism at the district level before the elections. The Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had recently announced that the government proposed to set up fast-track recruitment boards at district level to complete selection of more than 30,000 vacancies within next six months.
According to the sources as many as 33,000 vacancies are lying in different departments. These include 4978 in the gazated cadre, 22,116 non gazated posts and 6359 class IV jobs. At present the recruiting agencies are in the process of filling 12,000 vacancies. These include 2953 gazated posts to be recruited by the PSC, 7151 non gazated posts to be filled by SSB and 2213 class IV posts to be fixed by the Deputy Development Commissioners. The filling of all these vacancies has been kept on hold according to the government order, referred to above. Further as a pre poll move the government is also contemplating regularization of all the daily wages and ad hoc employees. The departments have been asked to furnish the details of all such employees.
Withholding of old age pensions to several lakh beneficiaries of the centrally sponsored scheme, too has been done, under the pretext of re-evaluating and undertaking fresh survey of the old aged persons in the Below Poverty Line (BPL) and destitudes who get benefit of this scheme. The monthly pension, which has lately been raised from Rs 150 per month to Rs 250 per month, is likely to be released to the beneficiaries little before the elections, with all the accumulated arrears to be disbursed to them.
How far these hat tricks to be played by the government, with an eye on deriving political mileage by influencing the electorates in favour of the ruling alliance partners, will actually produce the desired results, is a matter of speculation. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
