GUWAHATI, Jan 23 — The process to abolish the unnecessary posts in various departments to downsize the administration is now on but so far the State Government has not taken any decision to sack any existing employees. Official sources said that one of the major clauses of the financial Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that the State Government had signed with the Centre during the tenure of the previous Government was downsizing of the administration while the fiscal reforms committee, formed by the Government also stressed the urgent need for downsizing the administration. Sources revealed that after the signing of the financial MoU with the Centre, the State Government fixed a target to abolish 5,000 posts and the government departments were directed to identify the unnecessary posts, without which the departments can function and about 4,800 such posts were identified. However, till now only about a thousand posts could be abolished as in most of the cases, the original notification of creation of the same posts could not be located. Sources further said that the process of identification of unnecessary posts, which are lying vacant for years, is still on and efforts will be made to abolish such posts in a phased manner in the years to come.
Under the new system, to fill up any vacancy the concerned department has to approach the State level empowered committee, headed by the Chief Secretary can be given only after getting clearance from the committee. However, the committee is adopting a liberal approach in matters of promotion and in case of appointment of a person, whose family member was a victim of extremist violence. The Government has also taken a decision to check appointments under regulation 3F and now prior approval of the Cabinet is necessary for such appointments. Official sources revealed that the personnel department has recently issued an office memorandum to reiterate the transfer policy formulated way back in 1992. Sources said that as per the transfer policy, the gazetted officers should not be transferred to one place before three years unless there is a valid ground for doing so and prior approval of the Chief Minister is required if an officer has to be transferred from one place before three years. However, the policy, formulated in 1992, was not followed strictly and now an effort has been made to adhere to the policy by issuing a fresh office memorandum.