Vijayawada: YS Jagan Mohan Reddy-led Andhra Pradesh government on Monday gave appointment letters to over 1.26 lakh employees, claimed to be the first of its kind in the country in terms of numbers in a single recruitment drive, under a new governance initiative of Village and Ward Secretariats.
Addressing the candidates who had passed the exams, the Chief Minister said that the main purpose of the new set-up was to ‘bring transparency into the otherwise decaying system of governance which the previous government has followed.’
While congratulating the successful candidates, Jagan said never before were these many permanent government jobs created in one go anywhere in the country and employees recruited in a record time of just two months.
While over 21 lakh candidates applied for various posts in these secretariats that would deliver about 500 public services, a total of 19.50 lakh appeared for the written examinations from September 1 to 8.
Of the 1,98,164 candidates qualified in these examinations, 1,26,728 have been given jobs, including 31,640 in urban areas.
The Chief Minister initiated the process of handing over appointment letters to the qualified candidates at a function held at private function hall in Vijayawada.
“You should not treat this as a government job, but this is a movement to bring in change and transparency into the system of governance which the previous government has fully ignored,” he said adding that the new employees should show commitment, bring in best practices thus drive corruption away.
The candidates who were handed over the pass certificates thanked the Chief Minister profusely and expressed their happiness and said the appointment has given lots of strength.
“My husband is an auto driver,’ said Revathi, who was selected as Ward Health Secretary. ‘I used to work in a private hospital earning somewhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 6,000. The announcement of Village Secretariat exams came at a time when I was thinking that there was no scope for getting a government job until the notification came. I thank the government officials who have worked hard for this job recruitment process. I have taken responsibility to resolve any reported issue within 72 hours after,” she said.
“My father is a daily wage earner, mother is a kidney patient, and I am from BPL family. I have no recommendations. I have studied on my own. Thanks to Jagan Anna for the job recruitments done in such a large scale,’ said S Mutyalu, Fisheries Assistant at Gampalagudem Mandal.
The YSR Congress government will launch its ambitious village secretariat system in Andhra Pradesh on October. Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will inaugurate a secretariat at Karapa village in East Godavari district.
Jagan further said a social audit would be conducted periodically to ensure transparency and accountability and bring in credibility to the system.
The Chief Minister also announced that recruitment examinations would be conducted every year from January 1 to 31 to fill up vacant government posts in different departments.