Collate the data of non-locals in jobs after scrapping of local criteria (2005-2013) and urge the Home Ministry to take a fresh look at the domicile issue – says a blogpost by an islander.
Bureau Report
Port Blair, Jan 06: An avid blogger of the islands, Mr Debkumar Bhadra in his latest blogpost on the Domicile Issue wrote with passage of time, population of A&N Islands grew, so does its needs and aspirations. But environmental restrictions and logistic constraints inhibited growth of public sector. Absence of Public/Private sector Manufacturing Industries combined with restrictions under Environment and Forest Laws, the local’s inhabitants have no option but to depend on Govt sector job opportunities. The situation was manageable till local provision in employment was in place. Scraping of “local” criteria led to opening up of jobs to candidates outside the islands. It is available on record that till administrative safeguard was in place, out of 1380 recruitments made between 2001 and 2005, only 2 non-local candidates got appointed under A&N Administration.
Mr Bhadra further wrote that the scenario has changed drastically ever since usage of “local criteria” in appointments has been done away with. The situation got aggravated further due to improvement in transport and communication. Local employment notices are now listed by search engines through World Wide Web networks and candidates outside the islands are taking advantage of this. Gravity of the problem is reflected from the fact that close to 200 non-local candidates applied for the recently advertised 422 posts of teachers under Directorate of Education, A&N Administration. This sharp rise in representation of non-locals in jobs under local Administration is denting the prospects of local job aspirants.
He further wrote that the situation is so grim that, as of now, every fourth local in the productive age group is left without a proper job. These are the persons who have been born, brought-up, studied and eventually would be laid to rest in these islands. They neither have the means nor the isolation of these islands allow them to compete with their mainland counterparts. It is therefore grossly unfair to open up local vacancies to candidates outside the islands. The fact that so far only two candidates have been able to clear UPSC Civil Services examination is a stark reminder to the kind of backwardness the islands youths are facing being born and brought up in these Islands. Therefore it imperative that necessary administrative safeguard ought to be put in place to protect the interest of local job aspirants.
Observing that the effort to promulgate the “Public Employment (Requirement as to Residence) Regulation” is getting delayed, Mr Bhadra in his blogpost suggested the following administrative measures to protect the interest of local job aspirants in the interim :
– For all local recruitments, registration in the Local Employment Exchange could be made compulsory.
– For all Group-C and where-ever possible in Group-B posts, pass in qualifying examination from the islands could be made compulsory.
– Local candidates could be given additional weight-age in recruitment process.
– It could be mentioned in the employment notice that selected candidates should execute an agreement to serve the island administration for a specified period (say 10 years).
– In case of tie, local candidates could be preferred over non-locals.
The blog further opined that bunching-up of posts should be strictly avoided ie., all posts should be filled up at the instant of creation/falling vacant. This will reduce the number of vacancies available at a time. Non-local candidates would thus be dissuaded to apply for limited number of posts.
Mr Bhadra concluded the blogpost by urging the authorities to collate the data relating to representation of non-locals in jobs under Administration following scrapping of local criteria, specially during the period 2006-2013 and appraise the Home Ministry of the new and emergent facts, urging it to take a fresh look at the whole issue.
If the issue of increasing representation of non-locals in local jobs is not resolved, it could prove to be a Catastrophe which will have much bigger ramifications than what the May 2002 order had on the islands.
I thank the Editor of Andaman Sheekha for taking up the issue.