Circular on private employees draws flak in Maharashtra Assembly

Opposition members criticised the government in the Maharashtra Assembly on Wednesday for bringing out a circular that allows the hiring of employees in the industry, power, and labour departments through private agencies.

The MLAs criticised the government for taking such a decision when 17 lakh state government employees were on strike demanding the implementation of the old pension scheme. However, Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the decision was taken by the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government.

'State govt should provide clarification'

The state government should provide a clarification on the issue, leader of opposition Ajit Pawar said.

In some cases, the salaries of these private people will be more than secretaries in Mantralaya, he contended. “Are you here to help private contractors in government employment? What is the need of such circulars? Almost one lakh employees will be hired through this decision. This is happening when more than 17 lakh employees are on strike in the state. So the timing of the circular is itself controversial,” Pawar said.

Fadnavis replied that the decision to hire such people was made during the tenure of the MVA government. "This is no new decision. The earlier government has taken this decision to include skilled people in government functioning. Our government has done two modifications. The earlier government allowed the hiring of people for 10 years and we reduced this to 5 years. Also, there was one company that was under ED scanner in the list, according to the decision taken by the previous government. We have removed it," he said.

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