Contract hiring, outsourcing by Gujarat govt sets off alarm bells in state

Gandhinagar, Aug 21 The Gujarat government seems to be in a mood to downsize financial responsibilities for which it is taking to contractual and ad-hoc employment, even outsourcing, which will have far-reaching socio-economic repercussions, fear economists and politic.

Last Wednesday, the state government decided to give fixed salary benefits to employees hired before 2006 on contractual terms and their services will be counted as continued services. Some 42,000 employees will benefit from this, said state Education Minister Jitu Vaghani.

According to rough estimates, there are at least 5,00,000-6,00,000 employees who have been hired by the state government either through outsourcing, contractual service or ad-hoc recruitment.

"I have asked the state government in the Assembly several times to give the exact figure of contractual employees and workers hired trough outsourcing, but the government has always avoided the question," alleged Kirit Patel, Congress MLA from Patan.

According to Patel, at least 20,000 posts have been outsourced in the health sector, hired through contractors, who are charging Rs 28,000 to Rs 40,000 for each employee from the government, but hardly paying Rs 12,000 to Rs 20,000 to the workers.

In the panchayat department, there are 16,000 vacancies, while 6,000 posts of Talatis are vacant, but the state government does not want to take any financial responsibility and is worried about the future liability of pension and that is why it has selected the shortcut to hire on contractual basis or it is outsourcing jobs, alleged AAP leader Yuvrajsinh Jadeja.

"Since long, the state government has stopped hiring sweepers, peons and other class four employees on payroll it wants to hire lab technic, paramedics and even doctors on contract or ad-hoc basis, the negative impact of which we experienced during the peak of the Covid pandemic," Jadeja said.

The more contractual jobs, less social security, meaning more social stress and inequality in the society, which can lead the country to an unexpected path, feels economist Rohit Shukla.

"I fail to understand why the government has started thinking that higher pay-scales and pensions will be a burden on the state treasury. In economics, it is said that more money in the hands of people means either consumption will increase or savings, and both will boost the GDP," said Shukla.

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