Assam State Agricultural Marketing Board restructuring begins in state

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The state government has started to downsize the strength of the Assam State Agricultural Marketing Board (ASAMB) to 58 through a process of redeployment and implementation of the VRS (Voluntary Retirement Scheme).

According to a note issued by the State Finance Department, the restructuring of the ASAMB will be through the redeployment of the ASAMB employees under the Directorate of Agriculture, Assam, and Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to employees above the age of 55 years as of January 1, 2024.

In the proposed structure, employee strength will be 58, and they will be from the respective cadre. The 373 ASAMB employees below the age of 55 are to be redeployed in the Directorate of Agriculture, Assam, against sanctioned vacant posts with pay protection, the note from the Finance Department said. The note further said that VRS would be offered to the 203 regular ASAMB employees above the age of 55 as of January 1, 2024.

Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture requested the Finance Department to re-examine the number of ASAMB employees and their respective financial implications, make necessary corrections or modifications to the draft Cabinet memo, and then re-submit.

The Agriculture Department observed that 'there is a mismatch between the figures, like financial implications and the proposed number of employees stated in the other sections of the Cabinet Memo.

The Joint Secretary of the Agriculture Department wrote a letter to the CEO of the ASAMB requesting that he examine the number of employees and their respective financial implications and submit the correct data.

The employees of the ASAMB have not been getting their salaries for the past 18 months, and that led them to take the path of agitation.

The ASAMB was formed in 1976 under the Assam Agricultural Produce Market Act of 1972, and a cess collected by the Board allowed it to pay the salaries of the employees and other necessary costs of the organization. But in 2022, the Assam government took a decision to prevent the collection of this cess and announced that the salaries of these employees would be made through budget allocations.

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