Stop Outsourcing Jobs And Fill Up 2,64,706 Vacant Defence Civilian Posts : AIDEF Appeals To Raksha Mantri

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that in the next one, year 10 lakh posts lying vacant in the Central Government Departments will be filled up. The PMs announcement was a great announcement for the lakhs of educated and unemployed youth of our country.

Recently, in a question asked by BJP MP Sushil Kumar Modi in the Rajya Sabha, the Government answered that in 78 Departments of the Government of India, 9,79,327 posts are lying vacant and that Rozgar Mela is expected to
continue to act as a catalyst in further employment and self employment generation and provide gainful opportunities to the 10 lakh youth over a period of one year or so.

On a study of the Minister’s reply given in the Parliament, it is revealed that in the Ministry of Defence alone, approximately 2,64,706 civilian posts are lying vacant. www.indianpsu.com spoke to C. Srikumar, General Secretary of AIDEF to know about his reaction on the huge number of Defence Civilian posts lying vacant. His reaction is as follows:

In the Defence Ministry more than 3.5 lakhs posts were lying vacant. However, silently the MoD has abolished thousands of posts especially in the Army, Navy, Air Force units. Thousands of posts were also abolished in the Ordnance Factories prior to Corporatisation and in other Defence Establishments including DRDO & DGQA in the name of rationalization.

At present as replied in the Parliament 2,64,706 posts are lying vacant in the Defence Ministry. After abolition of the posts, all jobs including sensitive, permanent and perennial jobs are being outsourced.
Outsourcing and contractarisation results only in corruption, poor quality of jobs and exploitation of the poor contract workers who belongs to the most vulnerable section of the society. AIDEF is vehemently opposing and protesting against such outsourcing of most sensitive, permanent & perennial jobs.

Outsourcing takes away the employment opportunity of youth belonging to OBC, SC & ST Communities. It is against Social Justice and Constitutional Provisions on reservation in jobs. AIDEF is also demanding for regularization of all the casual/contract workers in the available vacancies, to fill up the vacancies through the candidates waiting for Compassionate Ground appointment after the sad and sudden demise of the Defence Civilian employees as a one time measure. The Government, every year is training thousands of Apprentices in the various trades including specialized trades and after training they are not offered jobs despite the fact that jobs and vacancies are readily available for them.

If the Government is really interested to sort out the unemployment problem they can easily take a
decision to fill up the vacant post from the above vulnerable categories and there after to go for employment notification for filling up of remaining vacant posts. The evil design of outsourcing and casualisation of jobs should come to an end atleast in Govt departments and public sector term employments. He also pointed out the recommendations of ILO which states that “It is thus incumbent on Governments, as well as Employers, Workers and their Organisations through National, Regional and International efforts to focus on these challenges in the context of the future of work, with a goal of promoting decent work to all”.

C. Srikumar further stated that the AIDEF has today submitted a representation in this regard to the Defence Minister appealing to him to fill up all the 2,64,706 posts lying vacant in the Defence Establishments. He mailed a copy of AIDEF letter dated 13.02.2023 addressed to Defence Minister to www.indianpsu.com which is published here for the benefit of our viewers.

04/1004/MIN/AIDEF/2023 13.02.2023

To

Shri Rajnath Singh Ji,
Hon’ble Defence Minister
Govt of India
South Block,
New Delhi – 110001
Sub: Filling up of 2,64,706 vacancies of Defence Civilian Posts lying in the Defence Establishments – Reg.

Respected Sir,

The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India has announced that the Govt will provide jobs to 10 lakh youth within one year in all the Govt Departments. The unemployed youth of this country are anxiously waiting for the employment notifications in this regard. In the Defence Establishments thousands of Trade Apprentices are trained under the Apprentices Act 1961.

The Govt spent huge money for training the apprentices in various trades and after completion of the training, their training go waste since they are not provided job in the industry where they are trained. The Hon’ble Minister of State in the Ministry of Personnel, in a reply given in the Rajya Sabha to unstarred question No.127 answered on 02.02.2023 has stated that at present, 9,79,327 posts are lying vacant in the 78 Central Govt Departments. Out of this 2,64,706 Civilian posts are from the Ministry of Defence alone. You will appreciate that there is an acute shortage of manpower especially Skilled manpower in all the Defence Establishments and the Administration/Directorate of these Establishments instead of taking action for recruitment of filling up these vacancies are resorting to large scale outsourcing and that too in sensitive / permanent and perennial jobs. The Contractors to whom such outsourcing task is given they bring qualified / untrained persons by paying less wages to them and ultimately the quality of the work is compromised and the Contract workers are being exploited. Recently in one of the Ordnance Factory one of the sensitive section i.e. 4 x 4 Plant in Shell-4 section was given on contract and the Contractor has violated all the Safety norms and rules resulting in a major fire accident when the Factory was working in Night shift. The damage happened to the Plant & Machinery of this factory is not yet known.

Like this there are several incidents where the sensitive jobs were outsourced by the Administration and the quality and safety norms were compromised. In another case, an Ex-Contract worker was caught for passing on sensitive Defence information to the ISI Agents.

Sir, Govt being a model/good employer cannot resort to outsourcing of permanent and perennial jobs and allow corruption and exploitation in such type of outsourcing and contractorisation. It is therefore essential that the posts lying vacant in all Defence Establishments needs to be filled up through the regular employment process. The commitment given by the Hon’ble Prime Minister to fill up 10 lakh vacancies in Central Govt includes the 2,64,706 posts lying vacant in the Defence Ministry. It is therefore requested that the Hon’ble Defence minister may kindly intervene in the matter and arrange to issue instructions to all the Directorates /Head Quarters under the Ministry of Defence/DDP/DDR&D to immediately take steps to fill up the above mentioned posts lying vacant. While doing so the eligible casual/contract workers who are working for years together may be first absorbed in those vacancies, and as a one time measure through the candidates awaiting for Compassionate Appointment after the death/medical invalidation of the Defence Civilian Employees of various Defence Establishments including Ordnance Factories.

The remaining vacancies may be filled up from amongst the trained Trade Apprentices on Seniority basis and thereafter by publishing employment notification to fill up the remaining vacancies.

This step will go a long way for reducing unemployment in the country and also for utilizing the skill available with the trained Trade Apprentices for the development of the Nation. An earlier and favourable action is expected from your honor.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely
C.SRIKUMAR