As 23 lakh vie for 368 peons posts, govt looks to prune list

LUCKNOW: The recruitment of 368 peons in the state secretariat is giving sleepless night to the UP government.

With over 23 lakh candidates —graduate, post graduate, BTech and even Phd —applying for the post, senior government officers are busy holding meetings to chalk out the procedure for the recruitment. Already, they have held two meetings under the chairmanship of chief secretary Alok Ranjan

With these meetings remaining inconclusive, another one will be held on Tuesday.

“Our recruitment plan had gone awry as we have not imagined that there would be flood of applications and highly qualified candidates would apply for the post,” said a senior officer while revealing that initially it was decided to hold recruitment through interview.

Talking to HT, principal secretary, Prabhat Mittal said the state government was mulling over various options of recruitment.

Among alternatives under discussion are taking up written examination, holding interview or selecting on the basis of merit.

In case of merit based selection, the marks candidates have secured in the school examination could be considered.

“Chances are we might decrease the age limit to eliminate the overage candidates. The final decision will be taken in the meeting to be held on Tuesday,” said Mittal.

“We are also studying various models of selection adopted by the state government departments as well as other government organisations for the recruitment of group-D post,” Mittal said.

Few years back Allahabad high court had also held recruitment for filling up group D post in the court. “We might adopt the high court model if it is feasible,” he said.

The state government has also prepared a data base of the candidates. The minimum qualification for the post is Class 5. The other must for the post is the ability to ride bicycle, said the advertisement issued recently.

It asked the candidates to submit application online. The response, over 23 lakh applications, however, has left the officers perplexed.

Among the 368 posts, 268 are for general category candidates and remaining are reserved for SC, ST and OBC candidates in the age group of 18 to 40 years.

While 1.5 lakh graduates and 25,000 post graduates have applied for the post, 255 are PhD. High School pass include 11.21 lakh candidates while 7.5 lakh are intermediate pass. Over 54,00 candidates are Class 5.

“It does not matter that I have to paddle from one office to another or to carry files. All that matter is a government job which comes with a sense of security and a good salary,” said Shiv Kumar Singh, a post graduate in political science from Lucknow University, who is in the running for the “coveted” post.

To recall, a large number of highly qualified candidates had applied for the post of ‘safai karamacharis’ when the recruitment for the recruitment was announced by the BSP government.

AMONG THE 368 POSTS, 268 ARE FOR GENERAL CATEGORY CANDIDATES AND REMAINING ARE RESERVED FOR SC, ST AND OBC CANDIDATES IN THE AGE GROUP OF 18 TO 40 YEARS