One of the focus areas of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s budget is employment, but the bigger question is if the government is going to provide a level-playing field for candidates, minus any political pressures and affiliations. Power Minister Nilesh Cabral was on fire on the floor of the House over the issue of regularisation of Electricity Department staff. Cabral made no bones about the fact that MLAs are trying to influence postings. Political interference is not new in recruitment processes. Those in the government are well aware of the practices of quotas and Cabral not naming them has saved his government of the embarrassment. The Vigilance Department is probing an alleged recruitment scam in Goa Medical College, Health Department and the Agriculture Department on the eve of 2012 Assembly polls. The recruitment process for 119 police constables which began in 2016 has been muddled in politics and is yet to conclude. It is a shame that on one hand the government promises jobs, while on the other, ministers bend the rules to accommodate their own candidates. Where does the buck stop? We hear of the jobs coming, and that is good news. While Sawant’s government has, with great pomp, announced 5000-odd jobs despite the tight fiscal situation, we wonder what kind of financial prosperity Goa has witnessed now. Lest we forget, in November 2016, the then chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar had halted all recruitments due to the precarious financial condition of the State, only to be resumed in 2017 under the new coalition government. The power minister’s concern for jobs is well taken. However, his stern stance on those who have been in service for five to eight years without regularisation is baffling. Is there a ‘fire and hire’ policy on the cards? Cabral’s plan of putting temporary workers, including women, to test is dreadful to say the least. Asking these workers which include women, to dig holes, climb nine-metre poles and pull wires is not only inhuman but an indirect way of saying ‘go home’. All this after they have spent over half-a-decade in temporary service. What was the power minister or the government doing all this while when they were in employ? If these workers were not fit for the job, why did you use them for such long years? Is this the kind of attitude government is showing towards its employees? And what kind of a thrust on employment is Chief Minister Pramod Sawant talking about? There are employees who have stuck on to these low-paying temporary jobs only to make their ends meet. The State is currently going through a job crisis, but it doesn’t mean government can adopt a use-and-throw policy towards its workforce. If the workers were not fit for the job, how were they accommodated in the first place? The power minister must be thankful to the Constitution of India which doesn’t prescribe a test to ministers. If there was one, we wonder where they would find themselves.
