Guwahati, Nov. 3: Severe shortage of staff in government departments has prompted Dispur to consider making appointments on a contractual basis since pending court cases have barred the normal recruitment procedure.

An official source said the state government took the decision to hire on a contractual basis since key posts in various departments were lying vacant for several years, affecting services.

“In order to tide over the manpower crisis, chief minister Tarun Gogoi has asked his officials to explore alternative options like appointments on a contractual basis for a specific period of time, outsourcing certain activities and extension of services of retired employees,” he said.

“The chief minister feels the government cannot wait till the court cases are disposed of as it is hampering implementation of government schemes and administration — and the common man has to bear the brunt of it,” the official said.

Appointment to hundreds of posts in government departments had to be stalled after several aspirants moved court alleging anomalies and irregularities. Some of the cases have dragged on for seven years.

Gogoi has constituted a committee headed by chief secretary P.C. Sharma to identify vacancies in various departments which need to be filled up urgently.

“Based on the findings and recommendations of the committee, the temporary appointments will be made,” he said.

The education department is the worst affected, with around 12,000 vacancies.

“Moreover, about 600 posts of lower division assistants are lying vacant in offices of various government departments,” the source said.

Dispur is also contemplating outsourcing certain jobs like survey, implementation of social forestry schemes and social welfare plans to the private sector and non-government organisations.

Backlog in appointments can be traced to the erstwhile AGP government when a freeze was imposed following directives from the Centre.

After the Congress came to power in 2001, the ban was lifted and gradually the recruitment process began, only to run into litigation hassles.

“It has, therefore, become imperative to find a way out and the idea of contractual appointments was mooted to tide over the crisis,” the source said.

A senior member of the Sadou Assam Karmachari Parishad said the employees’ organisation would wait and watch how the government went about the exercise.

“We really don’t have much to say if the solution is for a short term, but if we find this is becoming a trend then we surely may have to take a stand,” he said.