Huge response: For the 368 posts of peons, the number of applications received has crossed a whopping 17.50 lakh
At first mention, you may call it bizarre, untrue or hearsay. But, it's a painful truth. The crisis of unemployment has compelled even PhD holders and B Tech qualified candidates to apply for the post of peons advertised recently by the Uttar Pradesh government.
Officials overseeing the recruitment exercise are stunned and virtually non-plussed with the kind of response that has inundated them after the advertisement for the post of peons in the state secretariat. For the 368 posts of 'chaprasi', the number of applications received has crossed a whopping 17.50 lakh, and the flow doesn't seem to ebb till the last date.
"Our staff is desperately looking forward to Friday evening which is the deadline for receiving the applications. By then, we expect this number to touch the two million mark," a senior official at the government secretariat told dna.
The numbers themselves speak of the magnitude of the unemployment problem. As many as 201 of the applicants are PhD holders, 20,056 have completed their masters (MSc., MCom or MA). Besides, 1.23 lakh-plus candidates are either BTech, BEd, BSc, BCom or BA pass. The number of those who have done their intermediate (Class XII) is close to six lakh.
The maximum number of applications for the post of peon have understandably come from those who have passed their high school (Class X) which was prescribed as the minimum qualification for this apparently much-coveted post. This figure is about 8.20 lakh.
"We never expected such a deluge of applications running in lakhs for just 368 'chaprasi' posts," says an official of the Secretariat Administration Department (SAD) which is the nodal department for the recruitment of secretariat staff.
The situation is such that the rooms of many SAD officials are overflowing with the applications, to the extent that some officials have had to leave their offices and are temporarily functioning from rooms they are sharing with other similarly harried officials.
"We had planned to finish off the recruitment process in a month or two. But, considering the huge number of applications, sorting them out itself could take two to three months," said a visibly stressed SAD official.
Unemployment is the cause
The numbers themselves speak of the magnitude of the unemployment problem. As many as 201 of the applicants are PhD holders, 20,056 have completed their masters (MSc., MCom or MA). Besides, 1.23 lakh-plus candidates are either BTech, BEd, BSc, BCom or BA pass. The number of those who have done their intermediate (Class XII) is close to six lakh.
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