There is a saying that ‘it is always dark at the foot of the light house’.
Such an irony exists nowhere but with State Employment Exchange itself here which is facing acute shortage of staff despite the State Government’s sanction to fill the vacant posts.The Exchange which is established to assist the local youth to get employment as per their academic qualification and reservation eligibility is itself struggling to find suitable candidates to fill the posts vacant in its own Head Office.
The Exchange website revealed that there are 37 posts in the head office including that of the Joint Director, Assistant Director and the programmer. Out of this, 10 posts are vacant.There are six posts of clerks but only two posts are filled up while four posts are lying vacant.“The interviews for the clerical posts were held in 2010 but thus far, no post could be filled” said a senior officer on condition of anonymity.
The senior officials concerned claimed that the recruitment process to fill the vacant posts is underway but they avoided telling about time-limit of its completion.Such is the situation that about fifty per cent of the posts in the Exchange are lying vacant for years.The department has 27 offices in as many districts and five other offices including the Employment Directorate located in the city.
There are many district offices wherein not a single employee is deployed and officials from neighboring district offices hold camps here to register the youth for getting them employment.There is a five member staff in the Raipur Employment Exchange office. The Employment Officer and Data Entry Operator occasionally hold camps in Gariyaband district to register the youth.
I agree that staff crunch is affecting the routine work, the State Employment Exchange Joint Director, SS Bhagat said, adding, that Balod, Bemetara, Sukma, Kondaganv, Surajpur and Balrampur district Exchange offices also depend on the nearby district offices for holding the registration camps there.
“The process of filling the vacant posts is underway. As a solution to deal with the problem of staff crunch, the Public Empowerment and Planning Department has already started online registration of the applications and soon all the works of the Department will be made online” he said.
