Govt mulling introduction of direct recruitment in LDC grade

NEW DELHI: The government of India is mulling reintroduction of direct recruitment in the lower division clerk (LDC) grade, as recommended by the third committee on cadre restructuring of the Central Secretariat Service (CSS).
The 3rd CRC, constituted in April 2013 after a Group of Ministers reviewed the matter and opposed phasing out of LDCs, has recommended in its report that direct recruitment in LDC grade be restored in a limited manner, along with a simultaneous reduction in direct recruitment in the assistant grade.
Stating that the government was considering the proposal, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) on Thursday sought the views of all Central ministries and departments, service associations and individual officers, on its merits latest by March 10. "In the changed IT environment, the intake of 200-250 (candidates) may be adequate to arrive at the sustainable number of about 2,000 LDCs and equal number of UDCs over the years with a combined strength of 4,000," the DoPT suggested.
The DoPT note futher said that to provide adequate promotional avenues to the newly recruited LDCs, percentage of intake of direct-recruit assistants may be reduced to 60% from the existing 75%, leaving 40% of the vacancies in the assistant grade to be filled up by seniority/LDCE quota from the UDC grade.
Incidentally, the note has listed the pros and cons of reintroduction of direct recruitment in LDC grade. Among the positive implications mentioned are more availability of manpower in the sections; less salary of LDC as compared to an assistant's; more continuity and institutional memory of LDCs as against outsourced staff; and lesser incidence of stagnation as directly recruited LDC can be promoted as UDC and assistant.
Of course, there are "cons" such as a return to officer-oriented system in Central Secretariat, maintenance of large cadre of LDCs to manually carry out routine office jobs when e-governance, paperless office and multi skilling is the norm; disappearance of savings shown in the first cadre restructuring of CSS; LDCs proving costlier than outsourced staff in terms of salary and benefits including pension contribution; and conflict of promotional opportunities between directly recruited LDCs and assistants.
Direct recruitment to LDC grade of Central Secretariat Clerical Service (CSCS) was stopped as part of first cadre review of CSS in 2003. Eighty-five per cent of the posts of LDC were then filled through direct recruitment quota. After implementation of the first cadre review, 85% of the posts of LDCs falling vacant every year would get abolished every year. The remaining posts were filled up by promotion from the erstwhile Group D employees.
This led to a substantial fall over the years in strength of LDCs in Central ministries/deparments, from the original level of about 5,300.