MARGAO
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s announcement for additional funds to Zilla Panchayats may ring in welcome news for the district panchayat bodies, though the government is silent on devolution of powers as envisaged under the 73th Constitutional Amendment.
But, will the beleaguered staff and employees attached to the Zilla Panchayats receive any positive news since they have been working in the two ZP bodies but not under the recruitment rules.
For decades since the Zilla Panchayats were set up in the state in 2000, staff and employees in these two bodies have been kept out of the recruitment rules, leaving their future uncertain.
If successive governments were found wanting in devolution powers and functions to the district panchayat bodies for the last 20 years, absence of recruitment rules has left the staff and employees of the Zilla Panchayats a worried lot as they all fear that they may have to retire sans the retirement benefits enjoyed by their counterparts working in the Directorate of Panchayats.
If officials are to be believed, the staff and employees of the Zilla Panchayats were appointed on compassionate grounds by an administrative order issued by the Personnel Department on August 9, 1999. Sources said since the Recruitment Rules were not in place when the ZPs were created in 2000, the staff sent to these district panchayat bodies were neither deployed from the Directorate of Panchayats nor other departments.
There has been no dearth of resolutions adopted by successive Zilla Panchayats in the last 20 years, making a plea to the Director of Panchayats in particular and the government in general highlighting the plight of the ZP employees to frame the recruitment rules and protect the interests of the employees after their retirement.
While the ZP staff maintained that they have been receiving salaries from the government’s grant-in-aid, they have to literally forgo the retirement benefits such as Provident Fund, Pension, etc for want of any deductions.
An attempt made three years go put the Recruitment Rules in place by extending the rules of the Directorate of Panchayats to the ZP staff and employees came a cropper due to technical reasons.
'The Goan' understands that the government had given its administrative approval around two years to extend the Recruitment Rules of the Directorate of Panchayats to the ZPs by creating the required strength in the office of the Panchayat Director, a move that was aimed at accommodating the ZP staff.
While the proposal was forwarded to the Personnel department for a notification, sources pointed out that the proposal went abegging with the personnel department insisting it has no role in issuing the notification, with a plea to the Directorate of Panchayats to come out with separate Recruitment rules for the ZP employees.
