FCI to hire 11,000 by year-end to operationalise food Bill

However, some believe this will only push the annual food subsidy higher

To operationalize the government’s ambitious National Food Security Law, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has embarked on a massive recruitment drive. Officials said by the end of 2013-14 financial year, the Corporation will have 11,000 new staff on its rolls, which include hundreds in managerial positions.

Recruitment of almost 4,000 staff members across all categories is already in operation, making the whole exercise one of the biggest recruitment drives by the state-run Corporation.

As on March 31, 2013, officials said the Corporation had sanctioned posts of around 36,515 across all categories of employees, of which 26,700 is filled while rest is vacant. In addition to these, the Corporation has over a lakh casual and contractual labourers both in its office and spread over 1,900 godowns and warehouses.

However, some experts are of the opinion that such a massive recruitment of officers and staff in FCI would further add on to the expenditure associated with the Food Bill, which in last count was estimated to push up the annual food subsidy to over Rs 123,000 crore, up from 2013-14 Budget estimate of Rs 90,000 crore.

In an official statement, the Corporation said that FCI, through the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), has advertised for 3,755 vacancies during 2011, out of which nearly 1,700 officials have already joined.

That induction procedure is still in progress.

Another 6,545 vacancies were again advertised for which the written examination stands concluded through SSC. FCI has now advertised 460 vacancies in the managerial cadre (Category II), which may be soon followed by advertising of 30 vacancies in the Assistant General Manager-level Category-I posts.

The new appointments precede the Food Security law under which FCI will need to meet increased requirements of storage and movement of food grains for the Public Distribution System (PDS).

“This is a massive recruitment drive undertaken by the FCI,” said FCI’s Executive Director (Personnel) Devinder Kumar Bhalla.

“It is after a long time that we have conducted recruitment at such a big scale,” he added. He said that massive foodgrain procurement along with the coming Law will requirement extensive food grain management in the country which has necessitated this recruitment.

The Food Security Bill seeks to provide legal entitlement for cheap grains to almost 67% of the Indian population. As per official estimates, after the Bill is enacted, the government would need around 63 million tonnes of grains annually, which is just marginally more than the current quantity of grains which the Corporation handles.