Hyderabad: On an average, nearly 500 government employees have retired every month in Telangana state in the last six months. The number of retirees is expected to increase to 1,000 next year resulting in one lakh additional vacancies in the coming eight years. TS already had 1.07 lakh vacancies when it was formed in June 2014.
However, the state government’s recruitment policy has not kept pace with the number of retirees, thus increasing the work load on employees, besides affecting the administration.
Though Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had announced on June 2, TS Formation Day, this year that 25,000 vacancies would be filled this year, the government could take up recruitment process for only 15,000 posts so far.
In October alone, 300 gazetted/ non-gazetted officers and 90 Class-IV employees retired, besides another 100 employees in local bodies and public sector undertakings.
In November, another 210 officers, 70 Class-IV employees and about 200 staff in local bodies/ PSUs are set to retire.
In December, another 250 officers, 60 Class-IV employees and 150 staff in local bodies/ PSUs are set to retire. In July alone, about 900 employees retired, the highest number this year.
While the finance department has accorded approval to fill 55,000 vacancies, notifications were issued for just 15,000 vacancies so far. A majority of these vacancies pertain to zonal, district-level posts.
With the Kamalnathan Committee yet to complete bifurcation of state-level staff between TS and AP, the government has kept these notifications on hold. The notifications for state-level vacancies of Group-I and Group-II are yet to be issued with no clarity on the actual number of vacancies.
Telangana Employees JAC leader G. Deviprasad said, “With nearly 500 employees retiring every month and no fresh recruitments being taken up, the existing employees are overburdened. This is also adversely affecting the administration. The government should step up the recruitment process, at least for the vacancies approved by the finance department.”
TS Secretariat Employees Association president A. Padma Chary said, “It’s the Secretariat employees who are facing the brunt on account of huge vacancies that are arising every month. No fresh recruitment drives were conducted for state-level posts since the past five years. Each employee is now forced to do the work equivalent to that of 10 employees.”
For the remaining four months in this year, the government is planning to fill 10,000 posts covering Group-I, II besides vacancies in police, excise and fire departments.
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