New Delhi, May 26 (PTI): An employees' association has urged the Centre to restructure the Joint Consultative Machinery (JCM), the platform for dialogue between the government and its staff, to make it more representative of present-day administrative realities.
The All India National Public Services Employees Federation (AINPSEF), an umbrella body that claims to have the support of over 13 lakh government employees of central and state government departments, Union Territories, and other organisations, has written to Union Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh in support of the demand.
In the letter, AINPSEF national president Manjeet Singh Patel said the current JCM representation structure was designed in the 1960s, when the government of India functioned through nearly 35-45 ministries and a relatively limited administrative framework.
However, the Centre now functions through more than 50 ministries along with numerous departments, autonomous institutions, educational institutions, research organisations, technical bodies, and Union Territory administrations, he said.
"Despite this major expansion, the representative structure of JCM (from the employees side) substantially continues upon the historical framework of 1966," he said.
As a result, several ministries, sectors, and centrally governed administrative ecosystems either receive highly inadequate representation or no representation at all within the present JCM structure, Patel said.
"The AINPSEF asks the government to consider expanding/restructuring the JCM structure in accordance with present-day governance realities and administrative expansion," he said in the letter, addressed to both Singh and Cabinet Secretary T V Somanathan. The Cabinet Secretary chairs the JCM meetings.
The association urged the government to consider rotational appointments of employee representatives from the staff side to ensure wider representation.
"Ministries/departments presently lacking representation may kindly be provided institutional participation within the JCM framework. A 'Union Territories Employees Confederation Representation Block' may kindly be created within the JCM staff side.
"At least four representatives from confederations/federations of Union Territory employees may kindly be included within the JCM framework," the letter said.
Accordingly, the standing committee structure of the JCM staff side be expanded and rationalised in accordance with present administrative realities and workforce diversification, Patel said in the letter.
"This appeal is not merely a request for additional representation, but a constructive proposal towards strengthening participative governance, consultative administration, institutional coordination, and ease of governance in Bharat," he said.
Patel said administrative modernisation must be accompanied by consultative inclusion so that all major sectors governed substantially under central administrative frameworks may receive fair and meaningful participation within institutional dialogue mechanisms.
"We sincerely hope that the government of India will positively consider this important governance reform in the larger interest of democratic consultation, administrative efficiency, and modern institutional coordination by ensuring expansion of JCM to ensure representation of employees from larger organisations/UTs which currently remain unrepresented," he added.
(PTI)
This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.
