Deputy CM Fadnavis as Maharashtra government scraps contractual hiring order

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday announced scrapping of a government order meant for recruiting staff on a contract basis by nine private agencies, and said it was the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) dispensation which had taken a decision to hire workforce on short-term basis.

His announcement came in the wake of opposition parties targeting the Eknath Shinde dispensation over the issue of contractual recruitment. Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) founder Sharad Pawar has lashed out at the government, claiming the system of contractual staffing in various departments deprives people from underprivileged communities of opportunities.

Addressing a press conference, Fadnavis said the first recruitment on a contractual basis was done in 2003 when the Congress-NCP government was in power in Maharashtra. He said contractual staff was hired for the first time in the education department under the Sushilkumar Shinde-led government.

GRs (government resolutions) related to contractual hiring were issued when Congress leaders Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan helmed the government during the 15-year rule of the Democratic Front (DF) coalition (1999-2014), said the Deputy Chief Minister.

“We do not want this. They (the MVA government) have committed a sin and we are being blamed for it. I have discussed it with Chief Minister Ekanth Shinde and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. We have decided to scrap the government resolution (GR) on contractual hiring,” Fadnavis said.

“The decision to hire staff on contract through nine empanelled agencies was taken by the Uddhav Thackeray-led MVA government,” he said.

Anil Deshmukh, former state home minister and a senior leader of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP faction, said the government was forced to scrap the decision due to pressure from the opposition. Fadnavis, however, clarified that the contractual recruitment of workforce done by different departments before this particular GR came into force will continue.

“The main question was the policy decision of empanelling nine companies to conduct recruitment. These nine companies were empanelled by the previous (MVA) government. Since we don’t accept this, we have scrapped it,” the deputy CM said.

He said when the proposal to empanel recruitment agencies was brought at a cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, the cost of the tender for hiring them was brought down by 25 per cent. There was a deliberate attempt by opposition parties to instigate youths over the recruitment issue, Fadnavis alleged.

“The Uddhav Thackeray government accepted it (contractual hiring) as a policy. All processes were done during the tenure of the Thackeray government (November 2018-June 2022),” he said.

On hiring 3,000 personnel in the Mumbai police, Fadnavis, who also holds the home portfolio, clarified, “No one is being taken on contract.” He said there was no police recruitment in the state during the coronavirus pandemic (2020-21) which led to a backlog.

“We conducted recruitment of 8,000 people this year (for Mumbai police). But their training will take one and a half years for completion,” the home minister stated.