NCSC asks TN to fill SC/ST vacancies

CHENNAI: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) has directed the Tamil Nadu government to take appropriate measures for filling up over 10,400 backlog vacancies reserved for the SC/ST candidates in various government departments.

The commission issued the direction after taking note of a report by DT Next that appeared recently. The report sheds light on the backlog vacancies and pointed out that as many as 10,402 posts – 8,173 posts are reserved for SC, while 2,229 posts are reserved for ST candidates – were unfilled for more than a decade.

The vice-chairman of the commission, Arun Halder, on Monday directed the government to act swiftly in this regard.

“The state government has to fill up the 10,402 backlog vacancies reserved for the SCs/STs. It would be done within a period of three months,” Halder said in Chennai after hearing 13 cases filed before the commission.

Of these 10,402 backlog vacancies, as many as 6,861 and 229 posts are reserved for the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe candidates respectively in the Home and Prohibition Department, Halder said.

A highly placed source in the government said that Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu had issued a direction to expedite the process of filling up the backlog vacancies and that the same had been communicated to the heads of all government departments.

“There is a direction to conduct a special drive for filling up these vacant posts and senior officials are exploring the possibilities to accomplish it,” said the source.Meanwhile, Suba Veerapandian, the chairman of the Social Justice Monitoring Committee, said that it had submitted a report regarding the backlog vacancies and suggested the government fill up the vacancies at the earliest.

“We submitted our report along with suggestions in the first week of December last year,” Suba Veerapandian said.