Govt directs employees, who hired proxies, to report to designated places within 1 month

The Mizoram government has directed all the government employees, who illegally hired proxies or substitutes, to resume their duty within a month. In an office memorandum issued on Wednesday, the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DP&AR) said that all employees, who hired proxy staffers on their behalf, must report to their designated posting places within a month from the date of the order. It said that those employees, who failed to be stationed at their designated posting places must be treated as “unauthorised absence” and disciplinary action will be taken against them.

The DP&AR also instructed all concerned departments to take steps towards this end and submit compliance report within 45 days from the issuance of the order. Special consideration will be given to those, who are sick or have serious illness on production of ‘medical certificate of incapacity’ from medical board, it said. Voluntary retirement or invalid pension or compulsory retirement can be applied by interested employees, who are not willing to or can’t resume their duty, under CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972, it said.There are about 3,365 employees, who illegally hired substitutes staff to work on their place, according to officials.

 Among such employees, there are also some who already passed away, they said.  In January, the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) government directed all the employees, who hired proxies, to report themselves to the government and sought explanation from them. According to officials,  the school education department has the highest number of substitute employees at 1,115, followed by the health and family welfare department at 624 and the power and electricity department with 253 proxies.Of those who hired substitute employees,  2,070 govt employees said they had to do it due to health reasons, while 703 of them cited domestic problems.Other reasons cited by the employees for hiring proxies are absence of residential  quarters, inaccessibility of the villages where they were being posted and language problems, among others. Mizoram has about 50,000 state government employees.