Recruitment process shows no signs of coming to an early end
File photo shows thousands of candidates in a huge queue at the South Goa Collectorate just to submit their applications for the 147 posts of LDCs, talathis, jr stenographers and multi-tasking staff in the district Collectorate.
MARGAO
It’s half-a-decade and counting, but the recruitment process saga to fill up the 147 vacant posts in the South Goa district Collectorate shows no signs of coming to an early end, with the entire process now hit by allegations of cash-for-jobs scam.
Thousands of candidates, around 24,668 candidates to be precise, had burnt midnight oil in mid-February 2019 to submit their applications for the 147 vacant posts of jr stenographers, LDCs, multi-tasking staff and talathis.
Since then, the wait had been unending for the candidates, with the process somehow hitting a road block every now and then, with even the examinations postponed under one pretext or other in the last five years.
Between February 2019 till early 2023, the entire process was shrouded in mystery since the thousands of candidates received no calls for the written and skill examinations. In fact, the process was stalled for unknown reasons, with authorities initially attributing to the COVID-19 pandemic and then to the fact that the government was toying with the idea of filling up the vacancies via the Staff Selection Commission.
It was only in mid-April 2023 that incumbent South Goa district Collector, Asvin Chandru issued a public notice informing the candidates on the written examination and skill test schedule.
The process, however, soon came to an abrupt halt after the Collector in a public notice postponed the examination schedule in view of the civic polls for the Sanquelim and Ponda Municipal bodies.
While curtains had come down on the Municipal polls in May 2023, it took around three months for the district authorities to announce the examination schedule in September last year. The examination process, sources recalled, had its own share of controversies, after the district authorities were found sending the examination schedule to the candidates via the post office when the addresses of the candidates were not clear. After questions raised by the postal department and concerns expressed by social activists, the Collectorate authorities had then embarked on a massive exercise to call each and other every candidate over the telephone to ensure the candidates are informed about the examination schedule.
It’s now almost a year since the examination was conducted in September-October last year, but the posts are yet to be filled up for reasons best known to the powers that be.
