Assam Government Decides to Engage Retired Officials Once Again

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI, Aug 10: The State Government has decided to engage retired government officers to overcome shortage of experienced personnel in the various departments. The personnel department has already circulated an office memorandum notifying the guidelines in this regard.

A serious shortage has been felt mostly at the Grade-I and Grade-II levels which has created a serious challenge in implementing various development schemes, the memo stated. The reason for this latest move is due to the appointments that have not taken place “due to certain constraints and other procedure-related issues” during the last three decades. It also mentioned “the attrition rate of employees” due to superannuation as another reason for bringing about the new officer-engagement policy.

Though the initial period of engagement “will not be more than one year”, the overall tenure of such engagement “shall not exceed five years or 65 years of age whichever is earlier”.

To look after the details of this move, the Government had constituted a four-member State Empowered Committee (SEC) comprising the Chief Secretary as its chairman and the senior-most secretary of the Personnel department as its member secretary. The two other members would be the senior-most secretaries of the Finance Department and the department concerned. The personnel (A) department would place all such proposals (both fresh and renewal) before the SEC.

The government justifies its move stating that “although the State Government has started the process of regular recruitment of the existing vacancies, this would take considerable time and new recruits also require sufficient time to gather expertise and skill in their respective fields.” Utilizing the services of outstanding and willing officers for a reasonable period of time beyond their superannuation is being taken up as an additional step to increase the capacity-building exercise of the various departments concerned.