Chandigarh, August 16
The cash-strapped Punjab Government is on a recruitment spree. It has put its recruitment machinery in a top gear in various government departments. The way the government is moving on the recruitment front, obviously, it wants to fill the vacant posts before the issuance of the notification for the Assembly elections in the state by the Election Commisson of India.

However, the recruitment drive launched by the state government at the fag end of its current five-year term can prove a double-edged weapon for it. Whereas the recruitment will please only a few thousands parents whose wards will be selected It will annoy lakhs of other parents whose wards will fail to make the final selection list.

In fact, a minister from Kapurthala district has strongly opposed the recruitment in the District Central Cooperative Bank there. Against the 80 odd posts advertised by the bank recently, about 10,000 applications have been received. The minister says following the recruitment of 80 candidates the remaining 9,920 candidates will turn against him and work to defeat him. He is not prepared to take such a risk.

Informed sources said nearly 15,000 vacant posts would be filled in the coming few weeks. Already over 1,000 vacant posts in certain government departments had been filled in the recent past.

Following grave financial crisis in the state in 1998, the state government had banned recruitment in various departments. In fact, a high-level committee of senior bureaucrats was set up by the government.

The committee had suggested that instead of making new recruitments, the government should redeploy surplus manpower from certain government departments to the deficient ones. According to information available, about 34,000 employees were declared surplus after a study. A redeployment cell was set up by the government. No one can say with certainty what task it has performed till date.

The committee was of the view that the government could save about Rs 170 crore per annum by bringing down the growth of staff in the government departments to zero level.

Instead of making redeployment, the government has lifted the ban on new recruitments.

For the recruitment of 12 Inspectors and 68 Assistant Sub-Inspectors in the Police Department, the Punjab State Subordinate Services Selection Board has received 14,500 applications. Physical test to shortlist the candidates for the final interview will be held soon. Already, 400 multi-purpose health workers and 300 auxiliary nurses midwives (ANMs) have been selected and 400 more multi-purpose health workers would be recruited soon. As many as 800 clerks have been recruited in the past few months by the board.

Various Central Cooperative Banks in the districts have started the process of recruiting 600 clerks. More advertisements are in the pipeline to seek applications to fill the vacant posts in such banks.

Interestingly, the state Agriculture Development Banks had advertised posts about three years ago to recruit field officers. Thousands of aspirants applied against these posts. A test was held to shortlist candidates for the final interview which was held about a year ago. However, till date the result has not been declared of the final interview. Informed sources said differences over recruitment between different government departments led to the delay in the announcement of the result.

The biggest recruitment is to be made in the Education Department, especially in primary schools where posts of teacher remained vacant for years. Primary education is one of the areas where the Badal government miserably failed to set things in order. The process is on to recruit 7,230 teachers in primary schools. As many as 52,000 applications were received and out of these 35,000 candidates have been called for interview to fill the vacant post in primary schools.

Over one lakh applications have been received to fill a little over 2,000 posts of lecturer and master cadre in government high and senior secondary schools in the state. The officials concerned have been put on the job to set the process in motion for recruitment in these schools.

After holding the screening test at least 1300 candidates have been shortlisted to fill 200 posts of audit inspector. The interview will start next week. About 5,000 applications were received against these posts. The test has already been held to shortlist candidates to fill the posts of excise and taxation inspectors by the board. The final interview to fill these posts is expected to start soon.