From scheduled castes and scheduled tribes to unemployed youths — the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government today tried to send a message to every possible votebank ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.
Sending a signal to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe voters, the government said it had cleared almost 90 per cent backlog in vacancies in reserved posts.
Home Minister P Chidambaram said the special recruitment drive, launched in 2004, to clear the backlog in SC/ST vacancies in both direct recruitment and promotion quotas, filled 56,169 posts in the past four years.
“There were 74,008 posts lying vacant, 26,358 in direct recruitment quota and 47,650 in promotion quota. In the direct quota, 20,705 posts have been filled and in the promotion quota, it was later decided that 36,284 posts need to be filled. Out of these posts, 35,464 posts have been filled. This means 89.71 per cent SC/ST vacancies have been filled,” said Chidambaram.
The drive covered all ministries/departments, their attached offices, subordinate offices, public sector undertakings and autonomous bodies, said a cabinet note. While other vacancies could not be filled for reasons like non-availability of suitable candidates, a fresh special recruitment drive had been launched in November 2008 for the remaining posts, said the note.
The government also accommodated major changes in the Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) Act and the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act. Chidambaram said 17 amendments had been accepted for the ESI Act while the Cabinet had accepted most of the recommendations of a parliamentary standing committee on the education Act.
As the government doesn’t have much time left to take new policy decisions as the schedule for the general elections is set to be announced, it took a host of such decisions today. Among these, it decided to modify the policy for urban street vendors. “A draft Bill and the modified policy will be given to the states to take appropriate action,” Chidambaram said. The Cabinet also approved the National Policy on Skill Development “to create a workforce with improved skills, knowledge and internationally recognised qualifications.”
