Jalandhar: Term it rising unemployment or desperation for a government job among the youth in Punjab, over 2.33 lakh candidates had applied for patwari post, which offers a mere Rs 5000 as stipend during the 18-month training.
The Services Selection Board (SSB), which was conducting the recruitment, has scheduled two tests.
As per the government records, there were around 200 contenders for each post as against 1152 posts over 2.33 lakh applications have been received by the department.
From 2.33 applicants, over 1.71 candidates have appeared for written examinations at 550 centres across the state on Sunday. The exam was in multiple choice questions format and there will be negative marking.
SSB Chairman Raman Behal informed that now the department would hold the second test for shortlisted 11,520 candidates.
Astonishingly, even the mandatory qualification was the only graduation for this post, applications were M.phil, PhD, postgraduates and other higher qualification students.
Punjab government had advertised for Patwari recruitment 2021 in January and PSSSB Board had published a notice in Punjabi on its website related to the recruitment asking applicants to apply from January 14, 2021, onwards. The state government conducted this Patwari exam after four years.
A senior administration official, on request of anonymity, expounds the craze for this post among youngsters, “Many consider this a lucrative post as the concerned officer has access to revenue records and people pay a hefty amount to make corrections in land records especially in rural areas.”
Meanwhile, if selected, a newly recruited will get Rs 5,000 as a stipend for18-month training and later the person would get Rs 20,000 for the first three years.
Height of unemployment; 2.33 lakh apply for 1152 patwari posts in Punjab
