While 25,000 newly recruited teachers were given appointment letters at a grand ceremony organised at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan, the rest received the same at similar functions held in various districts.
Of the total 1,20,336 appointments made by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC), 70,545 happened to be primary teachers and 26,089 secondary school teachers whereas the remaining 23,702 are higher secondary teachers, the government said.
Significantly, of the total appointments made, 48 per cent (or 57,854) are female teachers, highlighting the state government’s focus on women empowerment.
Government said quite many appointees are those who earlier were working in Oman and Qatar on various posts or were employed in Indian Army, paramilitary forces, railways, and multinational companies. Some of them were even employed in Convent Schools and Central Schools.
10 lakh government jobs
Apparently bolstered by the tremendous response, the chief minister on Thursday announced to fulfill his government’s commitments of providing 10 lakh government jobs and creating an equal number of employment opportunities in the next 18 months.
“We will fulfill our commitment of giving 10 lakh government jobs and arranging for equal number of employment opportunities to the youths in the next one-and-a-half year,” the CM declared, addressing a function at Gandhi Maidan organised to distribute appointment letters at a mass scale. “We are already working in this direction,” he announced.
Stating that Bihar is the first state in the country to make such a large appointment, Nitish said, “There has been no recruitment anywhere else in the country on such a large scale as has been done in Bihar and the people must remember.”
He also announced to grant the status of government employees to protesting contractual teachers for which they will have to clear a test. According to the CM, some 68,000 contractual teachers participated in the exam conducted by the BPSC out of which 28,815 applicants cleared the test.
Yah Silsila Chalta Rahega: Tejashwi
Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, while speaking as the distinguished guest, declared the process of distributing appointment letters won’t stop anymore; rather it will pick up momentum in days to come.
“Yah Silsila ruknewala nahin hai,” he declared, asking the jobless youths not to get upset stating, “Nirash na hon. Lagatar Sarkari naukriyan milengi. Awasar milega (please don’t get disappointed since you will constantly get opportunities for government jobs).” The cheers by appointees, he added, explain unemployment is the real issue in the country.
Taking potshots at the NDA’s allegations of irregularities in the appointment of teachers, Tejashwi asked them why they failed to provide jobs on such a large scale. “What happened to those who promised to give two crore jobs to youths every year?” Tejashwi asked in a subtle dig at PM Narendra Modi.
Asking the youths to tell what kind of government they want — the government which provides jobs or those whose focus is on disturbing communal harmony — Tejashwi said the youths had voted in the name of jobs and his government was working overtime to come clean on their expectations.
“We are working in proper coordination with ‘mission and vision’, but the Centre is not cooperating,” Tejashwi alleged, adding Bihar would have figured among top five states had it got the special category status and the special financial package (as promised by the PM).