BENGALURU: The Income Tax Department in Bengaluru hosted the 20th edition of the Centre's Rozgar Mela on Friday, with around 210 candidates receiving appointment letters for posts in the tax and other central government departments.
Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Shobha Karandlaje, was the chief guest and personally handed out letters to the newly selected recruits, framing the moment as part of the government's larger push toward a "Viksit Bharat by 2047."
Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax Vidisha Kalra said that this tranche alone covers over 51,000 recruits across 45 locations nationwide, taking the scheme's cumulative tally to roughly 12.75 lakh appointments since it began.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the gathering via video conferencing and offered greetings to the incoming batch of government employees.
Selfie points, video testimonials of grateful appointees, and stress on nation-building described the youth as the "Amrit Peedhi" --nectar generation tasked with shaping India's future.
The Rozgar Mela initiative was launched in 2022 and has been spoken of by the union government as evidence of job creation in the central government sector.
However, the opposition has criticised this. It asked how much of this represents genuinely new employment versus the filling of long-vacant, already-sanctioned posts (a backlog built up over previous years).
The opposition has called for transparency on vacancy-to-appointment ratios across departments.
The 12.75 lakh cumulative figure, while substantial, is also frequently cited by critics against the far larger number of vacancies in the central government services still pending action, and against employment demand estimates that could run into the crores annually.