Maharashtra government to go slow on hiring, create no new posts

The state government's expenditure is on the rise vis-a-vis income, forcing it to cut corners by going slow on recruitments and focusing more on e-governance.

According to a circular, the government speech and white-paper of the finance department show that expenses, particularly on salary, are on the rise compared to revenue. "This is not an acceptable model. The expenses of the government should be less than its income. The state budget revenue is expected to grow by 9.64% and, as per the Seventh Pay Commission, the government's expenditure is going to shoot up drastically. Most of the money will be spent on paying wages of government employees. As a corrective measure, the government has decided to go slow on recruitments and stop creating new posts," read the circular issued by state chief secretary Swadhin Kshatriya.

However, the circular clarified that the decision to control recruitment will not be applicable to government bodies like Cidco, MMRDA, financially independent government departments and Central government subsidised bodies. "Even recruitments in police, education, revenue, health, animal husbandry departments will be cut down by half of the total requirement. Besides, on the recruitments of senior officials, chief secretary, general administration, will take a call after consulting the finance department," said a finance department official without wishing to be named.

Circular laid emphasis on e-governance so that administration work didn't suffer due to non-recruitment.

A senior government official said as part of e-governance and Digital Maharashrta, laptops, computers and tablets would be provided to officers. "We are framing a policy in this regard. We want all our employees to become technology-savvy, which will increase the speed of governance and reduce corruption as there would be less human interference," he said, requesting anonymity.

The state government has also set up a committee headed by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to execute the Digital India plan.