Chandigarh: More than seven months after the Punjab Cabinet approved the creation of a dedicated cadre to fill the state’s vacant posts in the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), the recruitment process remains stalled due to delays in finalising service rules.
The delay has raised concerns over whether Punjab will be able to fill nearly 2,500 vacant quota posts in the key water and power management organisation before the current government’s term ends.
Punjab Irrigation Minister Barinder Kumar Goyal said the rules for the proposed BBMB cadre are currently being drafted. He added that the Chief Secretary is expected to hold a meeting soon to expedite the recruitment process.
Nearly 45% of technical posts vacant
According to officials cited in the report, 1,486 technical posts from Punjab’s cadre are currently vacant in the BBMB. This accounts for around 45% of the sanctioned technical strength of 3,297 posts.
The vacancies include 568 foremen, who play a crucial role in the maintenance and repair of Bhakra Dam, dam galleries, spillway gates, turbines and high-voltage transmission lines.
The staffing shortage could worsen further, with around 330 employees expected to retire in the coming months, according to sources.
Plan involves transfers and direct recruitment
The Punjab government has reportedly received approval from the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) to proceed with recruitment. However, the process cannot move forward until the recruitment rules for the new cadre are finalised.
Under the proposed plan, some posts would be filled by transferring surplus employees from various Punjab government departments, while the remaining vacancies would be filled through direct recruitment.
The dedicated cadre is intended to address a long-standing problem in BBMB. Employees recruited under the new system would be posted specifically to the BBMB and would not be eligible to return to Punjab government departments.
Punjab has struggled to fill its BBMB quota
Punjab accounts for around 52% of the BBMB’s share and is entitled to a corresponding share of employees working across the organisation’s projects in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan.
However, Punjab has struggled to fill its quota for nearly two decades, partly because employees from its Irrigation and Power departments have reportedly been reluctant to serve in BBMB and often sought transfers back to the state.
As a result, vacancies have increasingly been filled by employees from Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
Haryana introduced a dedicated BBMB cadre around five years ago and has since been recruiting employees specifically for the organisation.
Officials believe a dedicated cadre could help address the staffing shortage while also strengthening Punjab’s institutional representation in the BBMB.
The BBMB manages the waters of the Sutlej and Beas rivers and operates some of the region’s key hydropower and irrigation infrastructure.
