Par panel asks FCI to relax norms & give SC/ST reservation in

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A Parliamentary Panel today asked state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) to relax norms and provide promotion to SC and ST employees in higher posts besides filling up 18,268 vacancies at the earliest.
The panel also suggested the FCI to undertake a special recruitment drive within three months to fill up the SC/ST vacancies.
"By not including these higher position in the ambit of reservation, the committee feels that the government has blocked all avenues of reserved category employees from holding posts which require policy making and managerial skills," the Parliamentary panel on the Welfare of SC/STs said in its latest report tabled in the Lok Sabha.

Stating that it fully understands that the government policy does not allow reservation in promotion for higher posts, the panel however recommended that "FCI under the constrained situation should chalk out a strategy to provide due representation in all categories of service and posts to SC/ST employees."
"If necessary, FCI may provide relaxation to SC and ST employees/officers as per the DoPT guidelines so that reserved category employees may not be deprived to go to the higher positions," the panel said in its report on 'Reservation for and employment of SC/STs in FCI'.
On percentage of reservation to SC/STs for higher posts, the panel strongly said that under no circumstances the percentage of reservation should be less than the mandatory 15 per cent and 7.5 per cent, respectively.

In no way, the demography of a particular state should be the reason for reducing the prescribed percentage for SC/STs, it added.

Since most of the 18,268 vacant posts are those reserved for SC/STs, the panel asked the FCI to ensure there is no "backlog vacancies" from one recruitment drive to another. Rather a special recruitment drive must be carried so that all SC/STs can be filled up since the 1997 revised roster.
The panel suggested the FCI to undertake a special recruitment drive within a period of three months so that SC/ST vacancies are filled up and are not carried forward years after year.

The last special recruitment drive for filling up SC/STs backlog vacancies was undertaken in 2008-09.
That apart, the panel also recommended that the recruitment for category I, II and II should be done by a government agency not by a private body. The SC/ST laison officers at different zonal and regional level should be full fledged officers.