The Cabinet Sub-Committee on Panchayat Raj (PR) Department has resolved to ensure that the services of panchayat secretaries, who would be recruited, would be regularised after they put in three years of service.
The three-year probation for the 9,355 new recruits would be useful in assessing their performance based on which their services would be regularised.
The Cabinet panel headed by PR Minister Jupally Krishna Rao and comprising Ministers Eatala Rajender, Tummala Nageswara Rao, Pocharam Srinivas Reddy and A. Indrakaran Reddy met here on Friday and discussed the modalities that should be adopted for recruitment of new panchayat secretaries.
The recruitment has been necessitated in view of the creation of 4,383 new gram panchayats that came into existence from August 2 taking the total number of panchayats to 12,751.
Recruitment would be conducted on the basis of written test and it would be mandatory for the new recruits to stay in their respective villages. The government has decided to pay ₹15,000 a month as salary for the new recruits.
The Ministers discussed the prospect of changing service rules related to district panchayat officers, MPDOs and executive officer of PR Department in line with the provisions of the new Act. The meeting decided to factor in seniority aspect as well as performance of respective secretaries in promoting them to the higher posts. The Ministers directed the officials concerned to prepare a comprehensive report on the staff pattern in the new panchayats taking into consideration issues like population.
Meanwhile, Mr. Krishna Rao expressed displeasure over delay in finalising the software for hosting online the development work being taken up in the department. At a review meeting with senior officials, the Minister wanted the software being developed for the PR Department to be linked with that being used by the town and country planning wing of the HMDA so that construction permits could be issued expeditiously for the applicants.
The Minister wanted steps to be taken to ensure strict implementation of the provisions of the recent Panchayat Raj Act and asked officials concerned to submit a report on the layout and building construction permits that were given before the new Act came into force.
The officials informed the Minister that 70% of the work relating to the software incorporating layout and building permits, trade licences and other aspects was completed. The Minister wanted the officials to post the minutes of the gram sabhas online.
