GUWAHATI, Jan 24: The Assam Government, which had adopted the Central Employment Exchange (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act, 1959 as far way back as in 1960, does not have an employment policy of its own even today even as the number of unemployed in the State has reached the alarming figure of approximately 17 lakh.
The amended Employment Exchange (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Rules, 1960, being followed in Assam, states: "Vacancies, required to be notified to the Central Employment Exchange, shall be notified at least four weeks before the date on which the applicants will be interviewed or tested where interviews or tests are held, or the date on which vacancies are intended to be filled, if no interviews or tests are held, and an employer shall furnish the Employment Exchange concerned, the results of the selection within 15 days from the date of selection." All establishments, including those in the private sector where "ordinarily 25 or more persons are employed to work for remuneration" are within the purview of the Rules which are open to violation as the State is without an employment policy. Most of the private establishments skip the Employment Exchanges and go for direct recruitment as if to deprive the local candidates.
The Sentinel sought views from a number of personalities leading various organizations on the issue of 100 per cent reservation for local candidates in government as well as private establishments. The response is a mixed bag. They are, however, unanimous on one point: that since there are limited job avenues in government establishments in the State, the private establishments have to adhere to the set Rules, and absorb the local candidates by conducting their recruitment process through the employment exchanges only.
Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) general secretary Dilip Sankar Saikia said that the Parishad had been demanding 100 per cent reservation for local candidates in all group C and D posts not only in the Central and semi-Central departments but also in private establishments like the banking and insurance sectors. "Banking and insurance sectors apparently show that their vacancies here are abolished, but they later get officials transferred from outside the State against the abolished vacancies," he alleged. Citing an instance, he said that the authorities in the UCO Bank had inducted an employee transferred from outside the State, depriving the locals. "The Parishad soon swung into action and did not allow the employee from outside Assam to join," he claimed, adding that the Government was not firm in the implementation of the Employment Act.
He further said that the then AGP Government in the State had initiated a suitable employment policy in 1986, but could not implement it because of the change of government. Quoting a section of the Compulsory Notification of Vacancies Act, he said all vacancies should be filled by appointing local candidates only.
He further said that the Parishad was now demanding that the minimum staff strength in private establishments for compulsory recruitment through employment exchanges should be brought down to ten from the existing 25. According to him, normally companies recruit people from outside the State as sales professionals who often submit ‘fake certificates’ stating their schooling in Assam. Most of the medical representatives and sales executives working in the State are from West Bengal and Bihar, Saikia pointed out, adding that nowhere in the country could one find Assamese people working in large numbers. (To be continued)
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