Bengaluru: With strong protests by job aspirants in Dharwad forcing Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah to announce recruitment in a phased manner, the state government is set to fill 50,000 of the 2.8 lakh vacancies in the coming financial year.The recruitment comes against the backdrop of fiscal shortage, legal hurdles and higher adoption of technology and AI possibly leading to redundancies in posts.Basavaraj Rayareddy, economic adviser to the CM, said legal hurdles have impeded the government’s commitment to social justice, flagging other key concerns: Legal battle over delivering social justice through internal reservation, and trying to keep the goodwill of the disadvantaged groups demanding it.He said the state govt is committed to delivering on this, urging the Centre to protect Karnataka’s reservation matrix (which breaches 50% threshold) under Schedule 9 of the Constitution,which provides immunity from judicial review. In the upcoming budget, Karnataka’s reservation matrix is set to touch 56%: The reworked internal reservation for SC communities is increasing from 15% to the proposed 17%, and that of STs would go up from 3% to 7%, taking the total up from current 50%.Skill development, entrepreneurship and livelihood minister Sharan Prakash Patil said the government is committed to resolving the legal concerns, but claimed the entire issue was political in nature. He blamed the previous BJP govt for not filling vacancies, leading to a huge backlog. Senior bureaucrats contended that financial implications have been the prime reason for the vacancy crisis. “The issue has been pending for decades. Many posts are not filled up due to the finance department’s overcaution, delaying clearances for recruitments. The state government spends Rs 90,000 crore on guarantee and social security schemes, making it impossible to spare funds for fixed expenditures,” according to senior bureaucrats.With an average starting salary of Rs 75,000 for a Group C post (for a first-division clerk or a govt teacher), the state exchequer is looking at an annual shortfall of Rs 20,000 crore to Rs 30,000 crore.Dismissing this, Rayareddy said economic concerns are not an issue at all as the government has factored in the increased expenditures for recruitments. “At least 80% of vacancies are currently held by contractual labour and are not literally vacant,” he added.With such concerns, the state is seriously considering restructuring government jobs to reduce financial and social justice burdens. According to sources, if restructuring is considered, then the present 2.8 lakh vacancies would be reduced to just about 1.5 lakh jobs.An official gave the example of electricity meter readers. Once smart meters are installed across the state, then there will be no need for the post of meter readers. Administrative Reforms commission chairman RV Deshpande said he and his team have already recommended major restructuring in government departments. “In an age of technology and AI, there is a lot of redundancies. If this is done, there will be a lot less outflow in terms of fixed expenditure and also rationalise departments,” said Deshpande. EndsSaga of govt jobs:Total govt posts in K’taka: 7.9 lakhTotal govt posts occupied: 5.1 lakhTotal govt posts vacant: 2.8 lakhExpected vacancies in next 5 years: 1.5 lakh (Jobs include those from govt departments, state-run boards and corporations) * Details as per Karnataka state government employees association
