The dichotomy in the State Congress could not be more revealing than this. Why would the Youth Congress want to make such a demand when the INC general secretary was in Goa, making a completely different announcement? No doubt the Youth Congress was reacting to a previous statement made by their State Congress president of cash for jobs, but they got their timing all wrong. Their demand, though justified, could have waited.
The demand is warranted as Goa needs a more efficient administration. Their demand for reservation based on merit in government jobs also underlines the fact that just a few meritorious persons may get absorbed in government. It is known that the cream goes to the private sector and what remains finds its way into the government. Except for the top civil service jobs, where recruitment is competitive, the rest of the positions may not get the best of candidates.
We can’t, however, overlook that recently Goa Public Service Commission (GPSC) did not have the best of experiences in selecting candidates for the post of junior scale officer. Even here, Goa may perhaps not be getting the best applying. In the pre-screening test for Junior Scale Officers (JSO) conducted this year by GPSC, 230 candidates were declared successful out of around 2,200 who answered. Around 3000 had applied for the 15 posts. By the time the process was completed the Commission was able to select 11 candidates, which means that four posts will still remain vacant. This, however, is a better performance than from previous times as in 2019, just three of the 3700 applicants for the JSO post had cleared the preliminary and computer based recruitment test. In 2017, five of over 1000 candidates had passed the computer based recruitment test and only one had cleared the final interview round.
There is no doubt that Goan youth need jobs and it is the responsibility of the government to provide these jobs. Article 41 of the Constitution makes States duty bound to provide employment to their citizens. Is the Goa government fulfilling this responsibility? The State perhaps has to answer this question for itself, as the number of Goans going out of Goa in search of employment is increasing.
While Goa discusses policies for local employment and reservations, the State of Haryana took a major step forward last month when it notified the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act 2020. Under the provisions of the act, the private sector has to reserve 75 per cent of jobs that offer a salary of less than Rs 30,000 a month for local youth. The Act comes into force from January 15, 2022. The Act brings under its ambit private companies, societies, trusts and partnership firms. Is something like this possible in Goa?
The question of employment has to be addressed not just through reservations but by creating gainful employment opportunities. Whether these be in government or in the private sector should not matter. They have to exist so that the brain drain from Goa is stemmed. Not only is there a lack of jobs, but the conditions of the exisiting positions may not be opportunities that the local youth are looking for. Reservations should also give a ranking for merit for without that, the best will never get a government job. Reservations based on merit sounds strange, because an employer will always want the best. But in the current Goa government scenario, this may just be a solution.
