Conduct of Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (LDCE) – for recruitment to UDCs and LDC Grade : MSA writes to the Secretary DST to issue necessary guidelines

Conduct of Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (LDCE) – for recruitment to UDCs and LDC Grade : MSA writes to the Secretary DST to issue necessary guidelines

No. CHQ-24/MSA (2022-23) 

Dated: 18 Aug, 2023 

To

        The Secretary to the Govt. of India,
        Department of Science & Technology,
        Ministry of Science & Technology,
        Technology Bhavan, New Mehrauli Road,New Delhi-110 016

            [Through, The Surveyor General of India, Survey of India, Dehradun]

Sub: Conduct of Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (LDCE) – for recruitment to UDCs and LDC Grade – Reg .

****

Sir,

        Your kind attention is invited on the subject matter and following correspondences made (attached) in this regard:-

Sl. No.	Letter No. and date	Letter addressed to	Request made in brief
1.	No. CHQ-09/MSA (2022-23) dated 19.12.2022	The Surveyor General of India, Dehradun.	Request for circulation of Reservation Roster from LDC to E&AO and Junior Hindi Translator to Assistant Director (OL).
2.	No. CHQ-02/Pr./MSA (2022-23) dated 30.11.2022	The Surveyor General of India, Dehradun.	Conduct of LDCE for recruitment to UDCs grade for past 5 years
3.	No. CHQ-20/MSA-2022 dated 09.07.2022	The Surveyor General of India, Dehradun.	-do-
4.	No. CHQ-4/MSA (2022) dated 13.01.2022	The Surveyor General of India, Dehradun.	-do-

2.       Notwithstanding, Association is continuously raising the matter from last 4-5 years and the action in this regard taken by the authority is making downhearted to aspirants of the subject examination. The unfilled vacancies are also being carried forwarded to next year, this also creating difficult situation in offices to conduct day to day affairs.

3.    Association vide letter shown above at Sl. (1) tried to get rosters of last 5 years to examine the reasons for not conducting the LDCE/DPC to fill the vacancies of LDC and UDC in promotional cadre, but again the request of Association remained unnoticed. Further, Association preferred the RTI to get the documents in this regard and found the following anomalies in calculation of vacancies to fill the posts:-

(i)     Separate Rosters are not being maintained for the post of UDC: As per Point-3 of Annexure-I of DoP&T OM No. 36012/2/96-Estt.(Res) dated 02.07.1997 (attached as Annexure-I) separate rosters should be maintained for direct recruitment and for promotions. As per information received from RTI, it isobserved that no separate roster is being maintained by the Survey of India. There should be separate rosters for following cadre as per Rule:-

        a. UDC – Roster for DPC Cadre for 164 points (not for 164 vacancies)
        b. UDC – Roster for Direct Recruitment Cadre for 273 Points (not for 273 vacancies)
        c. UDC – Roster for LDCE Cadre for 108 points (not for 108 vacancies)

(ii)     Roster not required for LDC promotion cadre:-As per DoP&T OM No. 36012/17/88-Estt.(SCT) dated 25/04/1989 (attached as Annexure-II) reservation in posts by promotion should be made applicable to all grades or services, in which the element of direct recruitment, if any, does not exceed 75%. As per Recruitment Rules of LDC total 85% of vacancies are to be filled by direct recruitment through SSC.Therefore,it is clear that rosters are not required for promotion from MTS to LDC. Whereas the reservation rosters are being maintained against the true spirit of the above cited OM of DoP&T.

(iii)    Vacancies not being calculated as per RR applicable from 01.08.2018:-As per recruitment rules of LDC and UDC came into effect from 01.08.2018 the Column 10 of RR provisioning the percentage of vacancies to be filled by various method of recruitment. As approximately estimates 200 UDCs were on roll and total 345 posts of UDC were vacant during inception of 2018 RR. In this condition as per recruitment rules, the distribution of vacancies to fill various method of recruitment should be calculated as per vacancy not as per cadre.The number of vacancies, in the case of 345 vacancies, should be distributed as 173 vacancies to Direct Recruitment (i.e. 50% of total vacancies), 69 vacancies to LDCE (i.e. 20% of total vacancies) and remaining 103 vacancies to DPC.

(iv)    Rosters are not available for the all years from 2019:- As per RTI reply the rosters for the posts of UDC and LDC has not been prepared. Hence not supplied to Association through RTI.

(v)    Supplementary DPC/Selection process is required to fill vacancies arises through Cadre Restructuring or amendment of RR:-As per established rule the year wise panel should be prepared through DCP/LDCE. If any omission/change in vacancies reported earlier to DPC/LDCE found then previous panel should be corrected/revised. Hence it is clear that review DPC/LDCE should be conducted for preparation of year wise panel to establish the natural justice to all aspirants.

4.    Due to miscalculation of vacancies and non-conduct of LDCE timely the post of UDC has been reduced in present cadre restructuring implemented vide Departmental Order No. W-246/709-Strength dated 07.08.2023.

5.    Amendment in Recruitment Rules of UDC is being construed as the cause of delay in conduct of LDCE erroneously. The following facts are being put forth for early consideration:-

(i)    Provisions of Model RR of UDC is advisory in nature:-Association would like to invite your kind attention on the issue on which no any deliberation made earlier. UDC is the lowest post in regard of Pay Level for selection from Combined Graduate Level examination (CGLE) of SSC. CGLE from SSC is single examination for selection from Pay Level 4 to 8. In Survey of India only the post of UDC being filled through CGL. Further no any promotional post is available for direct recruitment from the same examination. On the other hand, the nature of duties of UDC is more tedious in view of Contingent Bills of various projects/field in comparison of another department . In view of the above the demand of Association to keep earlier provision of requirement of 3 years as eligibility to appear in LDCE for the grade of UDC should be implemented.

(ii)    UDC RR 2018 with amendment RR 2022 is implementable to conduct the LDCE:-  

 

	Provision of UDC RR 2006	Provision of UDC RR 2018
Method of recruitment and percentage of vacancy to be filled	1. DPC - 75% through LDC with 8 years’ service 2. LDCE – 25% through LDC with 3 years’ service	1. DPC - 30% through LDC with 8 years’ service 2. DR – 50% through SSC 3. LDCE – 20% through LDC with 5 years’ service
Amendment RR 2022	Amending the provision of UDC RR 2018 effective from the issue of Amendment RR 2022. Amendment Clause through 1 st Para: ….the president hereby makesthe following rules to amend the MoS&T, DST, SoI (Gp C Ministerial Posts) Recruitment Rules, 2018, namely:- Provision inserted: “Note 1: The eligibility service for promotion through limited departmental competitive examination from Lower Division Clerk under clause (ii) above, for persons holding the feeder posts on regular basis on the date of coming into force of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Department of Science and Technology, Survey of India (Group ‘C’ Ministerial Posts) (Amendment) Recruitment Rules, 2022 shall continue to be three years.” Interpretation-1:Theunderlinedpart of above quoted “Amendment Clause” clearly states that rules amending the RR 2018. Interpretation-2:The underlined part of above quoted “Provision inserted” clearly stipulates the eligibility to appear in LDCE for UDC grade for LDC recruited on or before 01.09.2022 shall be 3 years.

6. In view of the above you are requested to issue the orders as early as possible to -

• prepare/revise the post based rosters as per DoP&T norms to calculate the vacancies in the grade of UDC for the year 2018 onwards.
• conduct review DPC of UDC for the year 2018 onwards.
• conduct DPC/LDCE for the post of LDC.
• publish LDCE notification for the pending years for selection to the post of UDC grade subject to calculation of vacancies.
• suspend the implementation of Cadre Restructuring till conduct of LDCE for promotion to the post of UDC from LDC.

6.    It is also requested to direct the Surveyor General of India to give the opportunity to Association members to interview with the Surveyor General of India on the subject matter alongwith other issues mentioned in this Association letter CHQ-12/MSA (2022-23) dated 10.01.2023 (attached).

Yours truly,

Sd./- (Ujjwal Sinha) Vice President Ministerial Staff Association (CHQ)

Sd/- (Mithilesh Kumar Karn) Secretary General Ministerial Staff Association (CHQ)

Copy to: All CoBs for information.

Copy to: All Branch Presidents & Secretaries: - with request to issue the resolution as per Draft attached. 

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