Recruitment for vacancies in tribal areas must be completed within 6 months: Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday directed government departments to complete the recruitment process for vacant posts in tribal areas within six months while seeking detailed information on employees currently accommodated in supernumerary posts and the original vacancies corresponding to those positionsChairing a meeting on vacancies in tribal and PESA areas Fadnavis said all departments and district administrations must submit the required data within two weeks He made it clear that the deadline for completing the recruitment process would not be extendedThe directions come amid recent protests and hunger strikes by tribal students and youth organisations over vacant posts recruitment delays and other issues affecting tribal communitiesGovernment seeks data on supernumerary posts and original vacanciesFadnavis directed district collectors to urgently compile accurate information on employees working in supernumerary posts across different government departmentsThe data is expected to include the number of employees currently holding such posts the number who have retired and details of the original posts that became vacant after employees were moved to supernumerary positionsThe information will be submitted to the Chief Secretarys office after which the concerned departments will be required to establish the necessary mechanisms for filling the vacant positionsAccording to Fadnavis the employees concerned were relieved from their original posts in compliance with Supreme Court orders However since many of them had served for a long period they were subsequently accommodated in supernumerary posts on humanitarian groundsRecruitment process to be completed within six monthsThe Chief Minister directed all concerned departments to complete the required preparations for recruitment within the stipulated periodHe said the recruitment process for vacant posts in tribal areas must be completed within six months and stressed that the deadline would not be extendedThe meeting also reviewed the verification process related to appointments under the Scheduled Tribes categoryAccording to a review conducted in 2015 several employees had not submitted their caste validity certificates A subsequent verification exercise in 2019 identified around 6860 employees without validity certificates of whom 1346 posts have since been filled according to the information discussed at the meetingProtests highlighted vacancies and recruitment delaysThe Chief Ministers directions come after widespread protests and hunger strikes by tribal students in several parts of Maharashtra including Pune Nagpur Nashik Yavatmal and NandedThe agitation was led by tribal youth and student organisations and intensified after an incident in Gadchiroli district in which three tribal girls died following a snakebite at a government residential schoolThe protests focused on the identification and filling of vacant government posts reserved for Scheduled Tribes as well as the pace of recruitment in areas covered under the Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas ActHunger strike suspended after talks with governmentA 17day hunger strike was suspended on August 29 after Fadnavis and Tribal Development Minister Ashok Uike held discussions with student representatives in MumbaiThe government accepted several of the protesters major demands and agreed to implement them within a specified timeframeAmong the key demands was the identification and filling of around 12500 vacant posts reserved for Scheduled Tribes across various state government departmentsThe protesters had also sought faster recruitment for positions in PESA areasRecruitment for remaining cadres to be initiatedAccording to the protesters demands and the governments discussions with student representatives recruitment had already been completed for nine of the 17 cadres under considerationThe government agreed to initiate the recruitment process for the remaining cadres which were reported to number between six and eight depending on the classification of postsThe protesters also demanded that Scheduled Tribe candidates be placed in the second position in the government pointroster system in accordance with earlier government resolutionsWith inputs from IANS