House committee advocates reservation for locals

PSU POSTS

Staff Reporter

Guwahati, April 4: The Employment Review Committee of the Assam Legislative Assembly has made suggestions to the State government that it should formulate a definite policy for reserving grade-III and grade-IV posts for local candidates in all the public sector undertakings in the State as the Gujarat government has done.

ONGC zira, in 2016, had advertised for recruitment to 22 posts for persons with disabilities, but the company did not follow the norms as laid down by the Supreme Court as well as the Employment Exchange (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959, the committee said, the report of which was tabled in the State Assembly on Wednesday.

When the anomaly was detected and brought to the notice of the State Assembly by Leader of the Opposition Debabrat Saikia, the matter was referred to the Employment Review Committee. The committee, on cross-examition, found that ONGC should have informed all the employment exchanges of the State about the need for such recruitment as per the Act of 1959, while at the same time it was mandatory as per the Supreme Court.

ONGC, on its part, informed only a few employment exchanges of its need for recruitment of persons with disabilities. But according to the Act, this should have been conveyed to the Directorate of Employment Exchange, which did not happen.

ONGC had advertised for online applications, as a result of which there were 199 applicants, of which 129 were from outside the State. The remaining 70 applicants were from Assam. Against 22 posts, in the first phase, 10 candidates were selected. Interestingly, of the 10 selected candidates, six were from outside the State.

Therefore, the Assembly committee said there should be a definite policy for reserving grade-III and grade-IV posts for local candidates in all public sector undertakings in the State. The committee also said it should be mandatory that the candidates applying for any such posts must have valid registration numbers at the local employment exchanges.