Curbs on new appointments, posts in Kerala

The government is understood to have placed stringent curbs on fresh appointments and creation of new posts in the face of acute financial crisis.

Official sources told The Hindu here on Wednesday that a directive was issued from the office of the Chief Secretary to all department heads on Tuesday as part of a bid to address the crisis.

The directive had been issued on the premise that tax collection had not improved as projected and expenditure had surpassed the expected limits.

Disbursal of July’s salary may not be affected, in August but the government would have a tough time to meet the Onam festival expenses in September.

Since Onam was in the first week of September, the government would not have to bear the burden of paying the salary for two months to the employees at one go but would have to seek means for disbursing the festival allowance and festival advance which would amount to almost 50 per cent of a month’s salary bill.

In addition to this was the burden of clearing arrears of welfare pension for various sections.

The sources said soaring administrative expenses had become a matter of concern for the government.

Concerted efforts to bridle the expenses had not borne fruit as expected and the government would have to resort to more serious means to rein in expenditure. Tax mobilisation efforts too would have to be bolstered further to meet the financial needs of the government.

Criticism likely

The move to impose restrictions on fresh appointments and new posts was likely to trigger a row. For, already there were complaints that the department heads were not reporting vacancies in time to the Public Service Commission.

An unwritten restriction was also reported to be in force against creating new posts. This would force the government to go slow on the demand for creating crucial posts.

The sources said during the beginning of the financial year itself the government had floated bonds worth Rs.1,000 crore to address the grave crisis and unless it resolved to tighten the belt, the crisis would worsen in the coming months.