The Maharashtra government last week began the administrative process to recruit nearly 29,000 people to fill vacancies at various levels and posts. It is expected to fill 7,000 more posts after the Lok Sabha elections are over.

Nearly 1.2 lakh sanctioned posts remain vacant in various departments of the state government in Maharashtra.

Of the 29,000 recruitments, 13,165 posts (45%) are in the rural development department (RDD) and 5,780 are in the public health department (Class C, D categories). The other recruitments include 877 medical officers; 405 engineers in the public works department; 300 engineers in soil and water conservation; 2,000 guards and surveyors in the forest department; 720 livestock supervisors; 960 audit assistants and inspectors in the finance department; and 1,800 talathis (village-level revenue official) in the revenue department. Three thousand others would be recruited in other departments, including school education.

The advertisements announcing these recruitments were published a few days before the model code of conduct kicked in last week.

Other departments such as animal husbandry, forest, soil and water conservation, medical education had issued advertisements for 4,400 posts in December 2018 and January this year. More than 8 lakh people had applied for these alone.

The Bombay high court (HC), however, has only allowed the government to begin the administrative process and hold written examinations and prohibited actual recruitment until the ongoing litigation over the Maratha reservation issue reaches a conclusion.

“Except for the RDD and public health departments, we have received lakhs of applications for posts in all other departments. Due to the delay in completing the pre-recruitment process by the home and water resources departments, advertisements for 6,000 posts of police personnel and 900 posts related to irrigation will be issued after the Lok Sabha elections. Adding them, the total of the posts to be filled has reached to 35,000 as announced by the chief minister last year,” said an official from the general administration department.

First Published: Mar 17, 2019 04:52 IST