Agartala/Guwahati, Dec 19 (IANS): The Tripura government has partially restricted fresh appointments in the state, saying various departments must get prior concurrence from the Finance Department in case fresh posts are required or new jobs are to be created.

In a recent memo, state Chief Secretary L.K. Gupta said there was a need for curbing fresh recruitments and job creation as the wage bill constituted major expenditure. He said Tripura has the highest level of government employment in the country in proportion to population of the state.

"The expenditure on salaries (including establishment expenses), pensions and debt repayments constitutes about 60 per cent of expenditure, leaving very little for development activities. The level of employment in Tripura is double compared to states like Meghalaya," he said.

"We could have saved an additional Rs 3,000 crore per annum for development activities for the people of the state if we have a Meghalaya-like employment scenario," he said.

"Creation of posts will strictly depend on availability of budgetary resources with the department concerned. Each department has a number of posts created in the past, which are vacant and no longer required. Hence, whenever a department submits a proposal for creation of a post, it should be accompanied by a proposal for surrender/abolition of posts with equivalent financial implication," he said.

According to the Budget-at-a-glance (2018-2019) number of employees on regular scale is 113,852 and total number of fixed pay, Daily Rated Workers, contingent, Part Time Workers, scheme workers is 44,368.

The BJP-led government, which took over after years of the Left rule earlier this year, has recently announced the 7th pay Pay Commission benefits to government employees.

Tripura Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, who also holds the finance portfolio, presented the budget in June in the state assembly.