Manipur government on Friday modified its earlier notification on putting on hold all ongoing recruitment processes for government jobs.
Now, the departments can continue the ongoing recruitment processes for the jobs which had already been approved by the state cabinet. However, results should be put on hold until further order, an order of the state government issued today stated.
An order issued by state chief secretary Rajesh Kumar on February 22 last put on hold all the ongoing recruitment processes citing the poor financial health of the state.
The processes to be put on hold included daily wages, contract employment, muster roll direct recruitment being undertaken by all the departments, including all agencies, societies, undertakings, boards, corporations, among others under them with immediate effect. The order further had put on hold conduct of written test examination and viva voce.
An office memorandum issued today by the chief secretary today (Friday) modified the February 22 order to allow the continuation of the ongoing recruitment process.
“However, declaration of result should be put on hold until further orders in view of the state’s economy and the precarious position of the state,” the order stated.
COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing nationwide lockdown have given a great impact to the state’s economy and considering the precarious position of the state, the state government took up various measures.
As a part of the measures, the government came out with a similar order suspending all ongoing recruitments barring those that were already underway with the approval of the cabinet on September 21, 2020,.
Five days after it halted all the recruitment processes due to the economic impact of Covid-19, the Manipur government had announced a new set of measures for effective management of the state resources.
While halting the recruitment, it was stated the economic dislocation inflicted by the pandemic has seriously impacted the resources of the state government and it has become imperative to cut down on non-essential expenditure.
The government had restricted all departments from making a financial commitment on items for which expenditure sanction has not been obtained.
All departments collecting major tax and non-tax revenue were also directed to take urgent necessary measures to meet their targets for the current fiscal year 2020-21.
The government has also put a ban on purchase of new vehicles, office furniture-equipments, printings of diaries, coffee table book among others. Seminars, conferences are also to be mostly held via video conferencing.
The state’s precarious financial position is likely to be prolonged as state deputy chief minister Y Joykumar Singh, who also holds finance, informed the recently concluded budget session of the Assembly that the revised estimated fiscal deficit for 2020-’21 has been pegged at Rs 3,743 crores, which is 9.93 percent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).
NNN