Recruitment policy: CM’s office throws a spanner in I&P works

Secy says he has no knowledge of MPAs being allotted quota for recruitment.

LAHORE:

While the Irrigation Department is at the tail end of completing its recruitment for beldars (unskilled workers) in many districts, PML-N MPAs are learnt to have been allocated quotas in the BS-1 jobs.

Sources said following instructions from the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, a committee headed by the district coordination officers in each district would get nominations from the MPAs for appointment of beldars to regular jobs.

In the last week of July, an XEN, acting on the instructions of the Irrigation Department secretary, advertised over 500 beldar posts. Over 4,000 candidates applied. The department had set new criteria for the physical eligibility. In several districts physical examinations were personally supervised by the XEN. Interviews and swimming tests were scheduled for the fourth week of August.

The CM’s Secretariat, meanwhile, directed the irrigation secretary to halt the recruitment process. The department informed the Secretariat that half of the recruitment process had been completed on merit and a postponement would create resentment among the applicants.

An official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the Secretariat did not relent and the recruitment process has been postponed.

Now PML-N MPAs would send nominees to the DCO concerned for issuance of appointment letters without conducting any test and interview, he added.

Irfan Elahi, the irrigation secretary confirmed that the recruitment process had been postponed. Elahi said, however, he had no knowledge regarding MPAs’ quotas for recruitment. Recruitments were being made at the XEN level, he said, and the secretary had no role in it, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 18^th, 2011.