After almost a decade of waiting for career growth, there is some relief for thousands of Madhya Pradesh government employees. The state government has given its approval to resume promotions across departments. The cabinet, led by Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, gave approval on 15 June to begin the promotion process that has been frozen since 2016.
The delay had been caused due to a legal tussle over reservation in promotions, an issue that has been troubling state employees for years. The controversy began in 2002 when the then government introduced promotion-related reservation provisions. These rules continued to be followed for over a decade, until allegations surfaced that reserved category employees got promoted quickly while general- category were left waiting.
In April 2016, the Madhya Pradesh High Court invalidated the promotion rules under the Madhya Pradesh Public Service (Promotion) Rules, 2002. As a result, promotions across the board were stopped. This led the then-government to approach the Supreme Court, which froze all promotions indefinitely.
Now, the new cabinet has taken a major administrative decision to resume promotions. The clearance will enable departments to begin evaluating and promoting eligible staff, many of whom have been waiting for a promotion for almost nine years.
This move is expected to boost the morale of the employees and improve administrative efficiency by filling key positions left vacant due to the promotions being stalled.
