30% vacancies affect functioning of Agriculture Department
05 Oct 2020 09:18:01
Staff Reporter :
All the political leaders and policy-makers talk of agriculture. However, not many appear to be bothered about functioning of Agriculture Department. For reasons including lack of promotions and retirement, at least 30 per cent of the sanctioned posts in Agriculture Department are lying vacant in Maharashtra. As per the data collected by Maharashtra Rajya Krishi Vibhag Samanway Mahasangh, a federation of 18 organisations of officers and employees of Agriculture Department, as many as 7,953 out of sanctioned 26,671 posts in various cadres are lying vacant across eight administrative divisions in State.
If one adds 427 vacancies, as against sanctioned strength of 831 under Agriculture Commissionerate, the number of vacancies goes up further. According to Mukund Palatkar, General Secretary of Maharashtra Rajya Krishi Vibhag Samanway Mahasangh, the total sanctioned strength of Agriculture Department as a whole is 27,453. “At the end of July last year, as per the report of Agriculture Commissionerate, 8,709 of the total sanctioned posts were vacant. The situation is the same even now. Of these total vacancies, 1,777 were expected to be filled through promotions and 6,962 were to be filled through nominations,” he told ‘The Hitavada’.
As per the data, vacancies in Vidarbha region alone are 33.78 per cent of sanctioned strength. Of total 8,018 posts sanctioned in the region, 2,709 are vacant. Within Vidarbha region, vacancies are more in Nagpur Division than in Amravati Division. As many as 1,447 out of sanctioned 3,915 posts are vacant in Nagpur Division, which is 37 per cent. In Amravati Division, 1,262 posts are vacant out of 4,103 sanctioned ones, which is 30.76 per cent. Palatkar pointed out that 40 posts of Class-II Technical Officers were filled in Vidarbha region some time ago. However, all of them got transferred out of region before their tenure. As such, the number of vacancies remains the same in the region. Besides, he said, the promotions in Technical cadre are effected every year.
Whereas, Clerical cadre promotions are awaited for three years. Many retire while waiting for promotions. They are deprived of not only promotions but also resultant pensionary benefits, he rued. The vacancies in Clerical cadre alone are 40 per cent of sanctioned strength, he said. Due to vacancies, not only administrative and accounts but also other functioning of Agriculture Department is getting affected. “The pending matters are not disposed of in time. We have been raising the issue of large-scale vacancies in the department since long. However, if the Government does not take necessary steps to fill up vacancies, we will raise it once again during the forthcoming winter session of State Legislature,” Palatkar said.