Following intervention of the Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi, the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESI) has modified its recruitment notification to allow candidates from Karnataka to write the preliminary and main examinations in Kannada medium.
The ESI Corporation had issued a notification dated December 27, 2021, for recruitment to the posts of Upper Division Clerk (UDC), stenographer (Steno) and Multi-Tasking Staff (MTS) in different regions and offices spread across the country. The recruitment is through two phases namely preliminary examination (qualifying in nature) and main examination.
However, in the December notification Kannada was not mentioned as medium of examination even for the lower-level posts, which meant that candidates from Karnataka had to write examinations either in English or Hindi to become eligible. As the recruitment is being conducted across thecountry, the candidates are free to apply for posts in a State of their choice. Following the development, various Kannada organisations had raised objection, alleging that the Centre was meting out injustice to Kannada-speaking candidates by not allowing them to write examination in Kannada. The MTS posts are categorised as Group-C posts.
Following criticism and allegation of step-motherly treatment towards Kannadigas by the Union Government, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Labour Minister Shivaram Hebbar had requested Mr. Joshi to take up the issue with the Minister concerned at the Centre.
Consequently, Mr. Joshi had taken up the issue with Union Minister for Labour and Employment Bhupender Yadav.
Corrigendum
Now, the ESI Corporation has issued a corrigendum to the recruitment notification dated December 27, 2021 revising the medium of instruction for the examination for the posts of MTS. With the corrigendum, Karnataka candidates can now write in Kannada.
In a release, Mr. Joshi said that responding positively to his request, Mr. Yadav had promised that the injustice would be rectified and accordingly he had taken steps to get the notification revised. Now with the corrigendum, the injustice to the Kannadigas had been rectified nowand he would thank Mr. Yadav for taking immediate remedial measure, he said.
Following the revised notification, Chairman of Kannada Development Authority T.S. Nagabharana has thanked Mr. Joshi for taking up the cause of Kannadigas and getting justice delivered through his intervention. In a letter written to Mr. Joshi, which has been released to the media, Mr. Nagabharana has thanked Mr. Joshi for raising the issue with Mr. Yadav to get justice to Kannadigas.
