Kolkata: The BJP govt in Bengal announced in its first budget on Monday that it would fill 1 lakh vacancies across departments, with women accounting for 33% of the recruits.State finance minister Swapan Dasgupta said in his budget speech that the recruitments, to be undertaken in phases, would strengthen public services. Half of the proposed hirings will be in the education sector and 33% of all recruits will be women, he said.Of the 3.5 lakh vacant posts in various govt departments, as many as 85,000 are in the education sector alone.Dasgupta said that of the 1 lakh recruits, 50,000 will be appointed as “teachers/professors and non-teaching staff”.Education department officials said govt-run educational institutions across the state have 4 lakh teachers on their rolls.The police department will get 20,000 recruits and Eastern Frontier Rifles, 1,000 recruits.In a first in Bengal, wherever applicable, 10% of the posts will be reserved for Agniveers — youths enrolled in the army, navy and air force through Centre’s Agnipath scheme.The finance minister said in his speech that the govt will take steps to restore confidence in recruitment exams for jobs in govt departments and govt-aided institutions. “To restore public confidence in recruitment for govt and govt-aided institutions, recruiting bodies will be brought under common institutional structure modelled on UPSC, strengthening transparency, public trust, efficiency and accountability,” he said.After the presentation of the budget, CM Suvendu Adhikari told reporters, “For employment generation, we relied upon tri-dhara (three sources) recruitment to govt posts. We announced in the budget that 1 lakh vacancies will be filled. We will follow the UPSC model and weed out corruption in employment. Employment will be generated in the private sector. The decision to re-examine Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 is geared towards that.”The state has already increased the age limit by five years for applicants seeking govt jobs. Dasgupta said on Monday, “This benefit will be for the next two years.”According to a notification issued by the audit branch of the state finance department, the upper age limit for applicants seeking Group A jobs has been raised to 41 years. For Group B posts, it has been increased to 44 years, and for Group C and D posts, to 45 years. The decision came into effect on May 11.
