Pb govt revokes appointment of 391 anganwadi workers

The Punjab government today said it has revoked the appointment of 391 anganwadi workers, which were made by the erstwhile government, due to "gross irregularities".

"391 appointments of the anganwadi workers were revoked due to lack of transparency," a spokesperson said.

He said the SAD-BJP government had filled up vacancies of 49 workers and 25 helpers in the 114 anganwadi centres in the state.

"In addition, it had started the process of recruitment of anganwadi workers at the 545 mini centres.

While the 153 appointments made earlier appeared to be in order, the remaining 391, which were completed at the fag-end of the erstwhile government rule, had been revoked due to gross irregularities found in them," he added.
 

The state government also said it will give employment letters to over 800 canal department revenue officials "purely on merit".

Both the decisions were part of the review process undertaken by the Amarinder Singh government on all appointments by the previous government in last few months of its "misrule."

"While prima facie, the appointments of the revenue officials (patwaris) were found to be in order, many of the anganwadi workers appointed by the previous government were found to be suffering from serious irregularities in a departmental inquiry.

It had been decided, therefore, to scrap those," said the spokesperson.

Amarinder Singh had asked the department to ensure that total transparency is maintained in the fresh recruitment process, he said.

The chief minister had also directed the Department of Social Security and Child & Women Development to thoroughly examine the alleged dubious appointments and take suitable action accordingly, he added.

The government was committed to ensuring jobs in the state, which was suffering from a huge unemployment problem and would not take away jobs from the deserving candidates unless their appointments were found to be violating the law or against public probity, the spokesperson said.