Tamil Nadu parties oppose "staff rationalisation panel" of government

DMK working president MK Stalin referring to the move said no efforts were made to fill thousands of vacancies in the Tamil Nadu government service.

"A suspicion arises if the government has an ulterior motive to scale down the number of permanent government employees," by going in for a staff rationalisation panel, he said in a statement.

Tamil Nadu Cabinet had reportedly given its approval for setting up a Staff Rationalisation Committee.

The panel will be tasked to identify unnecessary job positions and the move is aimed at cutting down revenue expenditure, it was said.

Expressing apprehension, PMK chief S Ramadoss said the "objective," is to abolish a majority of positions and fill the rest either through outsourcing or contract employment.

He said there was no posts in the government which was "not necessary." On the contrary only more employees will be needed to implement the schemes brought in with vote bank in mind by Dravidian majors, the AIADMK and DMK.

"It is not the hallmark of a good administration to abolish existing government jobs instead of creating new ones," he said in a statement.

Hitting out at the reported objective of the panel (to slash revenue expenditure), he said increasing the revenue instead was the way out.

While there were five lakh vacancies in the government, no effort has been made to fill it, and through the new panel all such positions will now be "abolished," he alleged.

"The government should give up its decision to set up the staff rationalisation committee and if this is not done, PMK will hold a massive protest by mobilising youngsters," he said.

He urged the government to fill all the "five lakh vacancies."