84,000 applicants for 2,664 posts!

Ruchika M Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 27

For 2,664 clerical posts, 84,000 applicants! The job spree by the SAD-BJP government ahead of the Assembly elections has resulted in a rush of applications like never before. Engineers, many of them pursuing Masters in Technology, and hundreds of postgraduates are among the applicants.

The Punjab Subordinate Services Selection Board (PSSSB) is grappling with the plethora of applications for the job of clerk and data entry operator. The candidates need to clear a written test and another for typing. "We will probably have the most qualified clerks and data entry operators ever," remarked an official. Though the minimum qualification for these posts is graduation, almost 70 per cent of the applicants are postgraduates.        

But a degree alone won't do. The candidates will have to prove their typing skills in both English and Punjabi. The computer labs of two engineering colleges — one in Mohali and another in Tangori — are being used to conduct the type test that concludes on June 19. The percentage of applicants to have cleared the test is just 10-15 per cent.

Senior officials said it was mandatory for the candidates to type two paragraphs in English and Punjabi (300 words each) at a speed of 30 words per minute. However, a large number of candidates had been unable to clear the test. "The software devised for holding the test is very user-friendly. We had uploaded two mock tests on our website. Some applicants complained that because of slow net, words typed during the test were only partially uploaded. We then decided to use intranet to hold the test," said Kamal Kumar, Secretary, PSSSB.

Last year, of the 16,000 candidates who had applied for 94 posts of Senior Assistant in the Civil Secretariat, only 24 had cleared the test.