The commission’s report suggests restructuring, merger of departments & phased reduction in subsidies
Thursday, 31 March 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The 5th State Finance Commission (SFC) has recommended that the state government should abolish all such posts in different departments which are lying vacant for more than three years. The posts involving essential services and those which could not be filled due to delay in the process of recruitment should be exempted from the recommendation. It has also advised the government that it should give proper structure to the departments after abolishing the posts lying vacant for three or more years. The commission has strongly recommended that departments of similar nature should be merged. It also opines that all the subsidies in the power sector should be abolished in a time bound manner. These recommendations were made by the report of the commission tabled in the Uttarakhand Assembly on Wednesday. Going further in its advice to make the government departments leaner, the commission has said that for the employees who cannot be adjusted anywhere a comprehensive voluntary retirement scheme should be brought. In another recommendation the SFC has said that such educational or other institutes which don’t have an infrastructure and where the student teacher ratio is very less should be closed. For reorganisation of the government departments the SFC has said that it should implement the recommendations of a committee set up for the purpose. It has advocated for a committed control system for proper maintenance of the assets.
The commission in its report further recommended that the non useful subsidies should be abolished in a time bound manner. The SFC also advocates for privatisation of the state owned sugar mills and such sugar mills where the state’s ownership is more than 90 per cent. It also recommends that such mills where the government subsidy is given in the form of payment of sugarcane should either be privatised or should be operated in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
In the mining sector the commission has advocated for micro monitoring of the royalty received on mining of sand and river bed materials used in construction works. It advises the government to effectively plug all the leakages and pilferages in the mining sector.
The 5th SFC was set up on November 4, 2019 by the state government. Former chief secretary Indu Kumar Pandey is the chairman of the commission.
