Bureaucrats won't have say in MC appointments in Haryana

Pradeep Sharma

Chandigarh, October 27

In a significant decision aimed at instilling transparency in recruitment, the Khattar government has taken away powers of bureaucrats to make selection for various posts in the municipal corporations (MCs) across the state.

Now, the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) and Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) have been mandated to make appointments to hundreds of posts in the civic bodies. The notification taking away the appointment powers of the bureaucrats was issued by Vikas Gupta, Secretary, Urban Local Bodies, yesterday. The notification dissolved the existing bureaucrat-dominated “selection committees”, replacing them with HPSC and HSSC.

Move To instil transparency

• Decision taken to instil transparency, provide level playing field to eligible candidates
• Recruitment for gazetted posts to go to HPSC; HSSC to make recruitments for non-gazetted posts

Currently, Secretary, Urban Local Bodies, wields considerable powers in “selection committee” in which the state government is the appointing authority. The Secretary also co-opts two other members to the committee, in which the MC Commissioner is one of the members.

Similarly, for the posts where the MC Commissioner is the appointing authority, the commissioner is the chairman. The senior-most joint MC Commissioner, a representative of the DC and another locally appointed officer co-opted by the chairman are the members of the committee.

A senior government functionary said the decision to clip the wings of the bureaucrats had been taken to streamline the recruitment process and provide a level playing field to all eligible candidates.

The corporations make hundreds of appointments every year at various levels, ranging from Chief Engineer to Group D employees. Appointments to some of the posts are made through promotion from within the service, or by transfer or deputation of officials from Central and state governments.

However, in a substantial number of cases, “direct appointments” are currently made through these two “selection committees”, in which the bureaucrats wield a lot of discretion. “With the appointments going out of the purview of the ‘selection committees’, favouritism and discretion are going to be a thing of the past,” the functionary claimed.