Guwahati: Even as the operation of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has taken a hit following an acute shortage of manpower, the PSU has terminated the services of many officials ‘without citing any valid ground’.
Sources in the FCI said, currently, over 20,000 posts are lying vacant in the public sector undertaking (PSU).
As per FCI Annual report, as on March 2022, of the total sanctioned strength of 42,038 staff, as many as 19,137 posts are lying vacant in the FCI.
According to 2022 data, while in category I, a total of 142 posts are lying vacant against the sanctioned strength of 1111, 1583 posts are vacant in category II against the sanctioned strength of 6221. Similarly, in categories III and IV, a total of 11978 and 5348 posts are lying vacant respectively against the sanctioned strength of 27345 and 7361.
During the last 22 years, the FCI has abolished over 31,000 sanctioned posts . According to FCI annual report, the sanctioned strength of FCI was 73834 in the year 2000 and it has been reduced to 42038 in 2022.
“It will be interesting to see, how FCI will contribute in fulfilling PM Narendra Modi’s promise of 2 crore job in a year,” said an FCI official.
Sources said during the last one year, the number of vacant posts has grown many-fold as the FCI has shown exit doors to many officials before their superannuation.
“Instead of filling up the vacant posts, the FCI authorities have fired many Chief General Manager, General Manager, Deputy General Manager level officers without citing any reasons. As a result, the FCI is currently grappling with the shortage of officers and staffers,” said an official, requesting anonymity.
According FCI annual report, in 2014-15, per employee turnover was 46130 matricton which will be around thousand times more now.
“FCI’s per employee turnover has increased several times, but the PSU has not filled up the vacant posts,” the official added.
“Those, who have been terminated, mostly belong to ST and OBC communities. Sudden termination of employment has left them high and dry as many of them have to pay bank loans and EMI,” the official added.
It may be mentioned that the present FCI chairman Ashok K. K. Meena himself belongs to the ST community.
FCI Chairman Ashok K. K. Meena.
Another official said, while some officers have been fired on flimsy grounds, no action has been initiated against a section of officers even after facing a CBI probe.
Sources said the FCI has planned to terminate 100 more officials belonging to category I and category II.
“The FCI authorities have already prepared a list of 100 such officers,” said a source.
Meanwhile, FCI has recently promoted the DGMs as GMs and filled up three posts of GM that fell vacant following retirement of three officers.
However, no post has been filled which are lying vacant following termination of some officers.
Interestingly, the FCI Officers’ Association remained silent about the anti-employee policies of the authorities.
“The bootlicker office-bearers of the Officers’ Association have not uttered a single word against FCI authorities. They have no commitment towards the interest of the officers,” the official said.
Anomalies in FCI are far from being exhaustive. Northeast Now will soon come up with a series of reports related to irregularities in termination and other matters of the PSU.