BENGALURU: Over 25,000 aspirants will be writing exams on January 6 and 7 for 15 posts of superintendent in the commercial taxes department in Kalyana Karnataka region. In spite of the number of vacancies in the government increasing every year, they are not being filled, resulting in a huge rush for every job recruitment notification by the government.
Though 2.56 lakh government posts are vacant, each time the department proposes to recruit a large number, the Finance department is unable to give its nod, or agrees to a few posts due to financial constraints, say official sources.
Of 2.56 lakh vacant posts, over 75,000 are in the education department (higher and school education), around 35,000 in the health department, and 22,000 in the Home department. Apart from this, there are around 10,000 vacant posts each in the revenue, rural development and panchayat raj, animal husbandry, finance and Schedule Caste welfare departments.
CS Shadakshari, president of the Karnataka State Government Employees’ Association, said that some posts like bill collector in gram panchayats require graduation as an educational qualification, but even engineers and MBA graduates are applying. “Last year, there was a notification for 10 drivers’ posts in the water resource department, for which 1.8 lakh people applied,” he said.
A senior official, on condition of anonymity, told TNIE that the trend of people applying for government jobs has always been there, but post the Covid pandemic, more people are applying. “We are not able to fill the huge vacancies. If there are 100 vacancies in one department, we can fill hardly 10, as the finance department does not give clearance,” the official said.
Sometime earlier, the government had called for applications for government school teachers. “Though there are close to 50,000 vacancies, the finance department gave its nod only for 15,000, and over 1.3 lakh people wrote the exam,” said sources.
According to P Guruswamy, executive member, of Karnataka Government Secretariat Employees’ Association, there is unemployment, and no recruitment going on in the private and government sectors to meet the demand. More graduates are passing out every year, he added.