PANAJI
A leaked government document indicates that nearly 85 per cent of candidates ‘selected’ for regular posts of Lower Division Clerks (LDCs) in the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) hail from Sattari’s Poriem and Valpoi constituencies.
The matter could snowball into a major controversy as the BJP-led State government which has initiated recruitment in multiple departments races against time to complete the processes and beat the Model Code of Conduct which will come into force ahead of the 2022 assembly elections.
According to the leaked document which The Goan is in possession, the recruitment panel of the GMC has finalised the list of ‘selected candidates’ for 105 regular posts of LDC. Interestingly, from this list of 105 ‘selected’ candidates, as many as 85 hail from Poriem and Valpoi assembly constituencies.
Interestingly, the list of ‘selected candidates’ has not yet been officially declared but authoritative sources, who did not want to be identified for obvious reasons, said that offer letters have already been disbursed, albeit informally.
The ‘selected’ candidates are being contacted on their registered cell phone numbers and are being asked to collect the offer letters.
Fifty-eight of these 105 posts have been cornered by the various reserved categories. Even among these reserved posts, 49 have been grabbed by candidates hailing from the twin constituencies of Poriem-Valpoi, according to the leaked document.
The government had called for applications to these posts in GMC&H through two different separate advertisements released on March 23, 2021 and October 8, 2021. Approximately 5,560 had applied for the jobs and answered the written examination as part of the selection process. Meanwhile, an audio clip has gone viral purportedly of a conversation between a cabinet minister and a worker, in which the minister states that he will fulfil all his promises related to jobs without people of Valpoi and Usgao having to come to him.
With unemployment a major issue being raised by the Opposition in Goa ahead of the upcoming assembly elections, the highly prized regular government jobs are commonly used to sway electorates and are a crucial element in the electoral armour of established politicians in Goa where voter strengths in each assembly segment hover in the 30,000-35,000
mark. In early October, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had announced that the promised 10,000 government jobs will be delivered in time before the model code of conduct for the 2022 elections comes into force.
The Opposition parties, including the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party have questioned the transparency in government recruitment processes.
The Congress has been raking up the issue on-and-off over several weeks while the AAP has launched an aggressive outreach programme after its supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal made a big announcement of a guarantee of one job per family and unemployment dole of Rs 3000 per month to every youth until such time as he/she lands a job.
