Chennai:
A common gripe in the private sector may well be under staffing and over working of existing employees. But can you imagine that in the Tamil Nadu government departments, vacancies are actually under reported?
One of the many measures undertaken by the new Chairman of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) R Nataraj, who was handpicked by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa post retirement as Director General of Police, is what he prefers to call "data mining".
The commission is responsible for the recruitment of more than 10,000 employees on an average every year, across 34 government departments in the state. Many of these departments are quite laid back when it comes to revealing the actual number of vacancies. Mr Nataraj points out that "in the Group 4 category that mainly comprises clerical posts and is the cutting edge of government functioning, we were informed that there were only 3000 vacancies. Through data mining, I managed to dig up 10,700 vacancies."
In Group 2 services for posts like Commercial Tax Officers and Assistant Section Officers, 1215 vacancies were communicated. That figure went up to 3600 after proactive efforts. Similarly, for posts of Village Administrative Officers (VAOs) "who are almost like Collectors in their small territories the intake has almost been doubled" from 967 to 1870 posts.
As a former top cop, the commission Chairman evinces keen interest in the police department where he was distressed to find that the constitution of promotion panels for promotions of Inspectors to Deputy Superintendents of Police have been hanging fire for many years. "This is a chain reaction. If you promote Inspectors on time, Sub Inspectors will get promoted and vacancies will arise for Sub Inspectors."
The previously scam-tainted TNPSC has clearly got a new lease of life; where the unofficial tag line is "we are here for service and not for commission!"