The Centre has put a freeze on recruitments in a number of commodity boards, including rubber, tea and coffee to “cut down on flab” and bring the staff strength down to a minimum level.

Recruitments can take place only under exceptional circumstances, with the permission of the Commerce Ministry to fill up specialised posts, a government official told BusinessLine .

“The idea is to bring down the numbers by not filling up vacancies when workers retire. The Commerce Ministry has sent letters to certain commodity boards, including the Rubber Board, Tea Board and the Coffee Board, prescribing that no future recruitment should take place without prior approval of the Ministry,” a government official said.

The official pointed out that the number of employees in each of these boards is more than what is required, and there is no justification in maintaining it at such high levels.

For instance, the Rubber Board has a sanctioned strength of 1,937 (with current employee strength at 1,572) against just 126 in Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority and 250 in Marine Products Exports Development Authority.

The Tea Board has 727 employees, while the Coffee Board has around 700, the official added.

“Since many commodity boards were employed in the production process at one point of time, they had employed a large number of field functionaries, including extension workers and tappers. With the change in profile of work, such workers are not required any more,” he said.

In case of Rubber Board, the Commerce Ministry wants to reduce the sanctioned strength of manpower to about 900-1,000. For the Tea Board, it is looking at capping the number at 400. “The Coffee Board has been asked to work out the numbers and get back to us. The idea is to bring down the numbers to the minimum threshold level, which is necessary to carry out operations,” the official said.

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