Jalandhar: The recruitment of Patwari has not only captivated the youth of Punjab but this time a stupendous number of women have also shown their interest in this post, which even offers a mere Rs 5000 as a stipend during the 18-month training.
As per the records, out of total 2.33 lakh applicants, 1.02 lakh females ( about 44%) had applied for the patwari post in the state.
The recruitment process for the post is underway and the Services Selection Board (SSB) had conducted a written test on August 8 and the result is likely to be announced on Wednesday while the recruitment process for the second phase will be held soon.
The state government is conducting this Patwari exam after four years.
The data states the highest number of applications were received from Patiala as 21, 567 people applied for this government post followed by Sangrur 19, 974, Bathinda 18, 126 applications and with 17625applications Fazilka stood 4th while 12, 336 applications came from Mansa district.
In the Doaba region, the highest 7141 applications were received from the Jalandhar district. Similarly, 2183 people applied from Kapurthala and 2667 from SBS Nagar district for the post.
As per the government records, there were around 200 contenders for each post as against 1152 posts over 2.33 lakh applications were received by the department, indicating a craze for government’s job among Punjabis.
Astonishingly, even the mandatory qualification was the only graduation for this post, applications were M.phil, PhD, postgraduates and other higher qualification students.
From 2.33 applicants, over 1.71 candidates had appeared for written examinations at 550 centres across the state last week. The exam was in multiple-choice questions format and there will be negative marking.
SSB Chairman Raman Behal said that now the department would hold the second test for shortlisted 11,520 candidates.
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