Now, Khattar govt to collect caste data of all employees

Withdraws 55yrold order that barred using employees’ religion & caste in official records, to ensure data collection for Haryana BC panel in the wake of HC directive

CHANDIGARH

: The Haryana governmentonMondaywithdrewa 55-year-old official order that barredusing“religionandcaste” of employees in official records andissued instructions to gather “castedata”ofthethreelakh-odd employees.

TheHaryanaBackwardClass Commission(HBCC)hassought information about the caste data ofalltheemployees—fromClass 1 to Class 4 — from the state government following the Punjab andHaryanahighcourtrulingin the Jat reservation case.

The high court has said the HBCC will decide if the Haryana government can breach the 50% ceiling in giving reservation.

TheManoharLalKhattar-led BJP state government has to place the quantifiable data by November30beforethecommission. Based on this data, the HBCC will submit a report by March 31, 2018, on the basis of which government will take a decisiononthereservationissue.

In this backdrop, the governmentonMondaywithdrewPunjabgovernment’sAugust20,1962 circular about “deletion of religion, caste etc from all government records.”

“…These instructions (of the 1962circular)shallnotbeapplica- ble in the state of Haryana in future,” reads the letter government issued while directing all heads of the departments, divisional commissioners, deputy commissionersandtopfunctionaries ofboards,corporations and public sector undertakings to start the caste data preparation exercise.

“It has been decided that in ordertocomplywithdirectionsof high court all departments/ boards/corporations shall provide information of caste data of all the employees under their control,” reads the two-page order the office of the chief secretary has issued.

The government has directed that every employee will submit a self-declaration to the head of the department on a specifically drafted “self declaration of caste of government employee” document.Alltheheadsof thedepartment will have to “ensure” that the caste data of the employees under their control is entered in the Human Resource ManagementSystem(HRMS)byOctober 10 positively.

While the state government will place before the HBCC the “quantifiabledata”,thecommission will be at liberty to seek the data/information from the state government, the welfare of scheduled caste and backward classes department etc.

It has been decided that in order to comply with directions of high court all departments/boards/ corporations shall provide information of caste data of all the employees under their control

CHIEF SECRETARY’S ORDER