Rubber Board to fill vacant posts amid staff shortage; farmers cautiously optimistic

The Hindu

a day ago

Crippled by a severe shortage of staff, particularly field officers, the Rubber Board is finally moving to fill several of its long-pending vacancies.
In its latest communication on Friday (June 13), the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry has granted approval for the appointment of 97 new staff members, including 46 field officers and 29 scientists across three categories. Confirming the development, N. Hari, an executive member of the Rubber Board, said the recruitment drive is part of a broader plan to reopen several closed field offices in the State.
'The Board has already completed procedures for appointing 40 new field officers and an additional batch of 46 will be recruited under this notification,'' he said.
'Baseless allegations'
Mr. Hari also dismissed as baseless the allegations often raised by political leaders from both the Left and the Right and sections of the media that the Rubber Board is being dismantled and rubber cultivation is being shifted to the north eastern States.
Officials of the Rubber Board too maintain that the newly recruited field officers are most likely to be deployed in Kerala, the country's largest producer of natural rubber. 'As the previous batch was posted in the northeast, we expect most of the new officers to be assigned to Kerala, where the shortage is more critical. The lack of manpower has severely affected several services, including the implementation of the Rubber Production Incentive Scheme (RPIS),'' said an official source.
To highlight the situation's urgency, officials noted that only three field officers currently serve the entire Changanassery region, which stretches from Mallappally in Pathanamthitta to Vaikom in Kottayam. Similarly, Rubber Producers' Societies (RPS) across the State, including in Kanjirappally, the heartland of rubber cultivation, have raised similar concerns.
To avail themselves of government schemes like the RPIS, growers must have their claims verified by field officers, a process now severely hampered by the shortage of the staff.
Enormous strain
Sources within the board too admit that implementing these schemes without adequate manpower has placed enormous strain on the institution. The board's overall staff strength, which stood at 1,649 in 2019, has dropped to 905 by 2023. Nearly 550 posts, including 137 for field officers, have remained vacant for years.
Meanwhile, growers are viewing the new recruitment initiative with cautious scepticism. Many worry that hiring new staff without updating the outdated recruitment rules could prove ineffective.
'At present, the board has only 42 field officers in service, including just 10 in Kerala, against a sanctioned strength of 174. While 25 new appointments were made recently and orders have been issued to recruit 46 more, many posts remain unfilled because the recruitment rules have not been revised in years,'' said Babu Joseph, secretary of the National Consortium of Rubber Producers Societies.
'A proposal to revise these rules was submitted to the government four years ago but has remained pending ever since,'' he added.