Maharashtra Government has, recently, revised staffing pattern of Food, Civil Supplies, and Consumer Protection Department. While the Government objective is to streamline the staff strength, this revision has raised eyebrows among officials as they feel that reduction in staff strength at some places will affect work efficiency. As per the revised staffing pattern for the department for the entire State, there will be total 37 posts of District Supply Officer (DSO)/Foodgrains Distribution Officer (FDO), 43 of Assistant DSO/Assistant FDO/FDO Group-B/Procurement Officer (Foodgrains)/Assistant Divisional Supply Officer. There will be 37 posts of Assistant Accounts Officer, one in each district of Maharashtra; 372 of Inspection Officer (Supply)/Zone Officer; 51 of Accounts Supervisor/Deputy Accountant; 705 of Supply Inspector/Awwal Karkun (Supply)/Foodgrains Procurement Inspector; 498 of Godown Manager Grade-2; 855 of Clerk-Typist/Junior Clerk; 37 of Clerk-Typist for District Grievances Redressal System; 498 of Godown Clerk; 37 of Driver; and 1,005 of Peons. Thus, in all, the revised staffing pattern provides for combined staff strength of 4,175 for Maharashtra.

 

The revised number includes strength of 1,382 for entire Vidarbha region. This includes 12 posts each for DSO/FDO, Assistant Accounts Officer, Clerk-Typist for District Grievances Redressal System, and Driver; and other posts. The highest 329 posts are of Peons in the region, followed by 288 of Clerk-Typist/Junior Clerk; 237 of Supply Inspector/Awwal Karkun (Supply)/Foodgrains Procurement Inspector; 159 each of Godown Manager Grade-2 and Godown Clerk, and 126 of Inspection Officer (Supply)/Zone Officer. In case of Nagpur, there are two offices -- Nagpur DSO and Nagpur FDO. Both these offices, put together will now have revised strength of 204. At the level of six divisional offices in the State, the revised staffing pattern provides for total 119 posts, including the highest 21 each for Nagpur and Aurangabad divisions, 20 for Pune, 19 each for Amravati, Konkan, and Nashik divisions. These 119 posts include six (one for each division) each of Deputy Commissioner (Supply), Assistant Divisional Supply Officer/Assistant DSO/Assistant FDO/FDO Group-B/Procurement Officer (Foodgrains), Technical Officer, Inspection Officer (Supply)/Zone Officer, and Driver; 33 of Supply Inspector/Awwal Karkun (Supply), 24 of Clerk-Typist, 18 of Peon, and 14 of Stenographer. However, according to sources in the department, through revision the Government is acting upon the unstated objective of reducing the staff strength by 25-30 per cent as envisaged some years ago. For instance, an official explained on the condition of anonymity, Nagpur city alone has six zones of the department. These had 35-40 Supply Inspectors previously. Now, all these six zones shall have one Supply Inspector each. “How can one Supply Inspector cater to verification of ration cards, inspection of fair price shops, follow protocol and discharge other duties for entire zone?” asked another officer.

 

Further, in the revised staffing pattern, the FDO Nagpur-2 office shall be closed down. On the establishment of Divisional offices in the State, 1,590 posts of sanitation workers and 67 posts of Driver shall continue till the retirement of employees serving presently. Hence, these are being treated as ‘supernumerary’. Once the employees serving presently either retire, resign, or die, or these posts become vacant due to any other reason, these will be abolished. Later on, services for which these posts exist today, shall be outsourced.