PANAJI
The State government on Thursday salvaged the recruitment processes initiated by its various departments prior to the recent assembly elections by extending by a year the amendment to by-pass the commissions and hire through the departments itself.
The amendment was extended via the Ordinance route which enables departments which had initiated the recruitment process and advertised sub-ordinate service posts prior to January 8 to continue and complete the processes.
These departments will now have to conduct the examinations and complete the selection process for the posts within one year.
January 8 was the date when the Model Code of Conduct came into force for the Goa Legislative Assembly elections held in February this year.
The ordinance -- Goa Staff Selection Commission (Amendment) Ordinance, 2022 (Ordinance No. 2 of 2022) -- was promulgated by Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai on Wednesday (May 11) and was notified on Thursday.
“Provided that where advertisements for filling up of the sub-ordinate service posts were issued prior to 8th day of January, 2022 the concerned Department may conduct examination and complete the selection process to sub-ordinate service posts not later than one year from the date of commencement of the Goa Staff Selection Commission (Amendment) Ordinance, 2022”, states the proviso inserted in Section 7 as part of the amendment.
It will also pave the way for departments to complete recruitment where written examinations were conducted but further processes, including interviews and issuing offer letters, were abruptly halted due to the imposition of the Model Code of Conduct.
Earlier this week, the Goa police department had written to the government seeking advice after it hit a roadblock in completing the hiring process as the amendment to the rules under the GSSC Act had lapsed in February.
The process of filling nearly 2005 positions, including 145 police sub-inspectors, 1,650 constables (700-odd for IRB Battalions) and other posts, had come to a halt in the Goa police department.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had in his previous term tweaked the rules under the Staff Selection Commission law to give powers to individual departments to recruit against sanctioned C category posts bypassing the commission.
The move had kick-started recruitment processes to fill nearly 10,000 government positions in the run-up to the February assembly elections which had generated much political heat with allegations of political interference and also corruption flying thick and fast.
The processes to recruit junior engineers in the Public Works Department (PWD) and multiple category staff in the Directorate of Health Services and Goa Medical College and Hospital, in particular, had come under severe criticism.
In the case of the DHS and the GMCH, the process was questioned as over 80 per cent of the candidates who were selected hailed from the twin Sattari constituencies of Poriem and Valpoi, represented by Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, who was also health minister then.
The recruitment processes in the PWD, DHS and GMCH currently face challenge in the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court which is hearing three separate petitions.
