‘How to fill 55,000 vacancies this year?’
Meanwhile, stakeholders opined that it was not viable to fill up all the posts this year, due to mounting debts and poor balance sheet of the State exchequer
Illustration: Saai
CHENNAI: At a time when Chief Minister MK Stalin had announced that 55,000 posts would be filled this year with qualified youth to speed up the work of the government machinery, the recruitment process and the bureaucracy has hit a block.
Notwithstanding the immediacy of CM’s announcement, the State vacancy estimate has reached an all-time high of 4 lakh. The situation is such that the former CM O Panneerselvam had flagged the issue seeking CM intervention.
Meanwhile, stakeholders opined that it was not viable to fill up all the posts this year, due to mounting debts and poor balance sheet of the State exchequer.
After Stalin’s announcement on August 15, the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) decided to issue the notification for the Group 1 exam at the end of August. “TNPSC is going to issue appointment orders for nearly 25,000 posts this year. For 2023-24, the number of vacancies will be known only when the Commission releases the annual planner which will be published in December this year. Notifications for some posts like PRO, Tourism Officer, College Librarian have not been published for years due to court cases. If they are resolved, the number of vacancies may increase to more than 30,000 this year,” opined R Surya Prakash, Race Institute.
Subsequently, the former Chairman of TNPSC and retired cop R Nataraj said that the Commission could fill almost all the vacancies in a year but there could be delay in recruiting government servants on time. “Around 25,000 to 30,000 of the vacancies mentioned by the Chief Minister are to be filled through the TNPSC. It may be possible to fill those posts this year itself. Candidates can be selected within 3 months of notification. But if the recruitment process is to be speeded up, the vacant posts in TNPSC should also be filled immediately,” he added.
According to Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB), there are about 15,000 vacancies for school teachers and college professors. Posts of assistant professor have been unfilled for a long time as surplus professors in Annamalai University have been transferred to other government colleges. Officials claimed lack of funding to keep 4,000 posts of assistant professors vacant, and 1,000 posts in universities.
“Vacancies can be filled in this year only if the notification is issued by January 2024. If the parliamentary election is announced, there is a high possibility that the TRB will put the appointment process on hold because of Model Code of Conduct,” opined V Thangaraj, state president, Guest Lecturers Association.
But a senior official from the State Higher Education department said that the TRB has been taking steps to fill the posts of assistant professors, post graduate teaching posts and polytechnic lecturer posts. “The number of vacancies is likely to increase from last year. Due to few court cases, there is a delay in filling up some posts. It’s doubtful to fill all vacancies by this year,” added the official.
Only 5,000 posts in the medical sector are to be filled for doctors, nurses, lab technicians and surgeons. “Since candidates are recruited for the posts of doctors, nurses, surgeons etc on a temporary basis via the Medical Services Recruitment Board (MRB), it’s not possible to fill other posts completely this year,” sources from the Health and Family Welfare department said.
Meanwhile, informed sources opined that the recruitment for constables, jail warden, fireman, sub-inspector posts are done by Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB). “Around 5,000-7,000 posts are vacant this year. There is a chance to fill them this year itself. But recruitment should be conducted without any glitches like previous exams,” sources added.
