5 months ago
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The wage is little than ₹650 a time and the occupation sits astatine the lowest rung of policing, demanding agelong hours of vigil astatine constabulary stations and law-and-order hotspots. Yet, specified was the unreserved for occupation that the Odisha Police had to crook an airstrip into an introspection hallway for astir 8,500 aspirants competing for conscionable 183 Home Guard posts successful Sambalpur territory connected December 16. The images person since gone viral.
“When we advertised for recruiting 183 posts of location guards, small did we cognize that truthful galore candidates would vie for the job. More than 10,600 candidates person applied for the occupation for which Standard V was the minimum qualification. We had to cull applications connected crushed of under-qualification and under-age,” said Bilkis Nesha, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Home-Guard), Sambalpur.
Around 8,500 admit cards were issued and routed done constabulary stations for organisation among aspirants.
Ms. Nesha said the Home Guard occupation was not casual to unafraid arsenic it seemed, arsenic candidates had to wide some written and accomplishment tests. “We were determined to guarantee a cleanable recruitment process. Had the examinations been conducted astatine constabulary stations, schools oregon colleges, determination would person been scope for favouritism. The Sambalpur constabulary medication truthful took a unanimous determination to bring each candidates to 1 location. The Zamadarpali airstrip suited the intent perfectly,” she said.
To forestall malpractices during the written introspection that carried 50 marks for wide cognition and an essay, implicit 150 constabulary unit were deployed arsenic invigilators. Modern surveillance measures, including drones and CCTV cameras, were besides utilized to intimately show the candidates.
The Sambalpur constabulary are yet to measure the reply scripts. “During the exertion screening, we recovered that galore highly educated candidates, including graduates, diploma engineers and those with teachers’ training, had applied,” Ms. Nesha said.
Explaining the dense unreserved for a low-paying post, the DSP noted that Home Guards are mostly deployed successful their ain localities and are seldom transferred unless progressive successful superior indiscipline oregon corruption.
Candidates, however, said that contempt the remuneration being little than prevailing regular wages successful the market, the fixed monthly outgo of a small implicit Rs.18,000 offered stableness and a consciousness of fiscal assurance for families.
While the antithetic prime of venue and seating arrangements connected the airstrip drew nationalist attention, constabulary officials said akin turnouts person been witnessed during Home Guard recruitments successful different districts arsenic well.
According to the Odisha Economic Survey-2025, the State has shown betterment successful cardinal employment indicators, peculiarly the labour unit information complaint and idiosyncratic colonisation ratio, particularly among women. However, Odisha continues to fig among the 7 States with precocious labour information successful agriculture, portion employment successful manufacture and services which are considered much unchangeable sources of income remains comparatively low.
Employment has remained a large governmental contented successful the State. Chief Minister Mohan Majhi said his authorities has provided jobs to 30,032 radical successful the authorities assemblage since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to powerfulness successful June 2024. The BJP authorities has promised 65,000 authorities jobs successful its archetypal 2 years and to capable an further 40,000 vacant posts by June 2026.
