PANJIM: With unemployment emerging as a major concern, the Dr Pramod Sawant government appears to be on a hiring spree ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections. In the last four and half month, over 1800 jobs across 13 government departments have been advertised.
As per government records, the process is on to fill 4640 vacancies in 28 departments including 900 police constables, since January till date. The recruitment process was halted for a while due to a surge in COVID cases.
With an eye on State Assembly polls, due in February 2022, the Sawant government had announced it would fill 10,000 vacancies in various departments in six months. Accordingly, in June, the government lifted the freeze on recruitments, withdrawing the recruitment ban imposed on November 22, 2016 by the then Laxmikant Parsekar government. The ban had been put in place following the financial burden due to implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission.
Most recruitments, 1307, have been initiated in the Police Department, followed by 750 in Goa Human Resource Development Corporation.
Of the 1833 jobs advertised since April, applications are invited to fill 500 vacancies between July-August (till date). “Directions have been issued to the departments to fill up the maximum advertised posts before election code comes into force,” sources said.
The various posts includes police constables, staff nurses, junior engineers, LDC, meter readers and linesmen, accountants, doctors, stenographers, conductors, food inspectors and other group C posts.
Sources said for now, with 4,600 posts, the government will be burdened with an additional financial liability to the tune of Rs 220-230 crore annually.
Opposition parties have cautioned the government pointing to the current financial situation, which is reviving slowly, in the current pandemic, as they believe that the State would not be in position to take on additional wage liability.