Mumbai: NCP (SP) Youth Wing Protests Against Government Contractual Recruitment Policy

The Maharashtra government has issued a circular to implement contractual recruitment in government departments. In response, the Mumbai Youth Wing of the Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar), led by Ad. Amol Matele, organized a protest in front of the state secretariat today. A large number of students and young individuals participated in the demonstration.

The state government has initiated contractual recruitment in various government departments. On July 12, the Medical Education and Pharmaceuticals Department issued a government resolution to fill 6,800 Group-C and Group-D posts in 59 government medical colleges and hospitals through private contractors. "A company owned by a BJP MLA is also involved in this process," said Ad. Amol Matele.

The government has approved the recruitment of 6,830 Group-C and Group-D posts in government medical, Ayurvedic, and homeopathy colleges and hospitals through private contractors. Due to the disarray in the recruitment processes run by both the state and central governments, many young people are feeling helpless. Consequently, whenever a recruitment process is conducted, there is a significant rush of applicants. A similar situation occurred two days ago with Air India Express in Mumbai, where thousands of candidates gathered for 300 positions out of a total of 2,700 vacancies, leading to chaos.

"The unemployment rate in Maharashtra stands at 7.7%, higher than neighboring states Gujarat and Karnataka, with rates of 2.4% and 3.4%, respectively. Compared to the previous year, Maharashtra's rate has increased significantly. According to government data, 724,000 posts from Class 1 to Class 4 are sanctioned in the state, out of which 33%, or 239,000, are vacant. Additionally, there are 236,000 contractual employees in these working positions," explained Matele.

The government has nearly 275,000 vacant positions. In 2022, the government announced plans to fill 75,000 of these positions by August 15, 2023. However, despite the need for a concrete and swift recruitment program, mismanagement in various government departments has delayed this deadline by almost 11 months. Furthermore, recruitment advertisements for 15 government departments are yet to be released.

The process to fill 4,644 Talathi posts is ongoing, with over 1.3 million applications received, but the merit list for this examination is still pending. "The government should be generating employment, but instead, recruitment advertisements have become a source of revenue. The state government earned ₹334 crores from various examination fees, with ₹67 crores from canceled exams still lying with the government. This year, the government has increased the examination fee to ₹1,000," Matele expressed with frustration.

The protest saw the participation of Mumbai Vice Presidents Omkar Shirke and Kailas Kusher, General Secretary Vishal Kanoje, Faraz Siddiqui, Imran Tadvi, Hanif Patel, Amol Hire, Rakesh Sode, District President Sachin Londe, Imran Sheikh, Santosh Pawar, Taluka President Kamlesh Dandge, Suyog Bhujbal, Mayuresh Pimple, and other officials.