GUWAHATI: Going one step further to achieve its goal of providing 1 lakh jobs, the Assam government on Friday recruited 11,236 people across 24 departments.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma handed over the appointment letters to the new recruits at a programme in Guwahati.
He said his government would provide the 1 lakh jobs as promised even if the Himalayas stand before it. He was referring to alleged attempts by elements to thwart the recruitment process.
"As part of our commitment to provide Govt jobs to 1 lakh youth in our State, distributed appointment letters to 11,236 recruits in 24 departments. We carried out the entire recruitment process purely on merit and in a transparent manner," Sarma tweeted.
He said a recruitment process for filling up 26,000 grade III and grade IV posts has already started and an advertisement for 10,000 more posts would be published soon. He urged the new recruits to work with dedication and help in fighting corruption.
ALSO READ | The pad women of Nagaland
Earlier, 27,000 people were recruited in two phases.
"We said we will give jobs to 1 lakh youth. We had also promised about giving opportunities to 2 lakh others for self-employment. We will keep this journey on till we reach our goal," Sarma said.
Recently, he had a Twitter war with his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal after the Assam government decided to close down some schools which failed to perform consistently.
On Friday, Sarma, who served as the Education minister for long years during the regime of three-time former Congress Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, stressed on strengthening the education system.
"We need a strong public education system. If we closed down some schools due to the lack of students, we also started 40,000 schools and appointed 2 lakh teachers in the last decade. No state has a record like this," Sarma said.
He said unlike pre-2001 when a big job market was running in Assam, now thousands of the youth get jobs in a clean and transparent manner.
He advised the newly-recruited police personnel to constantly work for the welfare of the poor.
"You must remember that you have not worn khaki to torture the poor but to protect them. I want you to remain the friends of the poor for their welfare," he added.