All-India Recruitments

That the unemployment problem in Assam has been growing every passing day has been recently confirmed when over eleven lakh candidates had taken the Assam Direct Recruitment Examination held recently for filling up a few thousand Grade 3 vacancies. This has also proved that young job-seekers in Assam have now also expressed confidence in competitive examinations in order to get government jobs. There was a time when people across Assam in general believed that one could get a government job either through favouritism and nepotism or by paying huge sums as bribes. Thanks to the present government taking a zero-tolerance stance against corruption, the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) has been able to come out of a situation when its then Chairman Rakesh Paul and two other Members had allegedly indulged in large-scale irregular practice practically leading to the auction sale of government jobs. But, while the next round of the Assam Direct Recruitment Examination has also generated a lot of enthusiasm among job-seekers for taking the competitive examination, what should be a cause of concern is that the same kind of enthusiasm is absent when it comes to targeting jobs in the central sector like railways, banks, and security forces. Railways in particular are one of the largest recruiters and employers in the entire county. But, while a large number of candidates appear for various kinds of jobs in the railways, the number of candidates for the railway recruitments is still very low. The result is that every time a railway recruitment drive takes place, the large majority of new recruits joining various vacancies under the NF Railway in Assam and the Northeast are from “outside.” It is only after a large number of “outsiders” land up in the state that various organisations like the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and AJYCP wake up. While the reality is that these organisations have failed to help the unemployed youth, one can now only suggest that the state government take the initiative to create an environment where a large number of job-seekers from Assam prepare for various kinds of all-India recruitment examinations.