New Delhi: The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has said that it has no power of superintendence over Ministries and government departments to monitor the implementation of reservation policy for Scheduled Castes, Schedules Tribes and Other Backward Classes.
The DoPT’s stand was made clear in an action taken report that was tabled in the Parliament on December 6 by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, reported The Hindu.
On the committee’s recommendation that random surprise roster checking should be conducted by the DoPT, the department has cited the Transaction of Business Rules and Allocation of Business Rules to say, “All departments/Ministries are equal, and the Department of Personnel and Training has no power of superintendence over other Ministries to monitor the implementation of reservation policy.”
In reaction to the DopT’s stand, the committee, headed by BJP MP Faggan Singh Kulaste, expressed its dissatisfaction at the “self-satisfied stance taken by the Ministry/DoPT that each Ministry was to implement the policy formulated by the DoPT.
At present, the charge of Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions is with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The committee, on the basis of its vast interaction with the Ministries, departments, PSUs, banks, autonomous bodies etc., are of the considered view that the DoPT being the nodal Ministry, should devise a mechanism at its end to enable it to monitor and to ensure implementation of reservation roster as per DoPT guidelines in this regard. The monitoring mechanism thus devised should be a “separate authority accountable to the DoPT,” the panel has said in its report.
Earlier, in its latest annual report for the year 2023-2024, the DoPT had omitted data on reservation in central government jobs and positions.
Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Brinda Karat termed the move as “deliberate concealment” of information and said that it was a way to “disarm” marginalised communities from seeking and asserting their rights.
