Bihar: 7,000 candidates get offer letters from govt

BIHAR: The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar on Tuesday said it filled close to 7,000 posts in various departments, which had been lying vacant for years because of legal wrangles. Appointment letters were given away to a total of 6,341 junior engineers, who will be posted in eight departments, at a function which was attended by the chief minister.

Besides, 496 instructors (anudeshak), to be posted in the Labour Department, got their letters of appointment at the same function. The Department of Water Resources, currently held by senior JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Chaudhary, was the nodal authority for recruitment of all JEs. Chaudhary later briefed journalists on the development.

"Most of these posts had been advertised way back in 2019 by the Bihar Technical Service Commission. But many aspirants, including those already rendering services on a contractual basis and the ones who held diplomas awarded by non-government institutions, challenged the process of recruitment in Patna High Court and Supreme Court," he said.

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Filling vacant govt posts

"As the nodal department, we reviewed the roadblocks that came in the way of the chief minister's resolve to fill up vacant government posts. On the CM's advice, a proposal for resolving the impasse was submitted before the apex court which gave its nod for the recruitment process," the minister said.

Notably, the Water Resources Department also accounts for the highest number (2,338) of fresh appointees, followed by Planning and Development (1,273) Rural Works (759) and Road Construction (503).

"Since 2005, when our leader took over as the chief minister, development has been the government's sole agenda. So much so that the opposition has realised that failure to admit that growth has taken place would be a political blunder and its leaders are now busy trying to claim their share of credit," he claimed.

The allusion was apparently to RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, who has had two short-lived tenures as the deputy chief minister, as a result of brief alliances between his party and the JD(U). Asked about Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's visit to Patna scheduled on Wednesday, the JD(U) leader said, "He often harms his own party... his refusal to accept that caste census was a brainchild of Nitish Kumar smacks of dishonesty."