At a time that 40% of its posts are vacant, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is in the process of optimising human resources with a new policy for overall growth of its personnel and to prevent vested interests from forming.
The draft policy on “optimisation of human resources in ASI”, which was published on March 7 and kept open for comments till March 20, according to an ASI official, covers all permanent employees of the organisation.
The draft policy lists to “avoid development of vested interests” and “prescribing fixed minimum and maximum tenure” for employees as some of its objectives. The draft states that the minimum general tenure for an employee at a particular place would be three years and the maximum five years or seven years “under extreme public exigency”.
On transfers, the policy states that all requests for transfer would be made through a specified online mode and “no requests, including VIP references, shall be entertained”. According to the official, the policy was placed on the ASI website in the interest of transparency and for ASI employees to give their comments.
The ASI, which maintains 3,693 Centrally-protected monuments and oversees excavations, has around 40% vacancies. Out of a total of 8,860 sanctioned posts, 3,574 were vacant, according to the Culture Ministry’s data cited in the report of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture presented to the Rajya Sabha on March 14.
In fact, the committee noted in its report that the vacancies reflected a “very pathetic state of affairs in all the organisations of the Ministry. In the archaeology cadre of ASI, against the total sanctioned strength of 420, the vacant positions are 166, similarly in the conservation cadre, against the total strength of 918 there is a mammoth vacancy of 452 positions”.
