Rajasthan govt to fill pending vacancies in Panchayati Raj dept

The Rajasthan government has decided to complete the recruitment for over 10,000 vacant posts of lower division clerks in the Panchayati Raj department, pending for the last six years.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, in a statement released on Tuesday, said the state government has decided to fill the Lower Division Clerk (LDC) vacancies in the Panchayati Raj department announced in 2013.

The department had invited applications for 19,275 LDC posts in 33 zilla parishads.

In the recruitment process, the Panchayati Raj department had given 70 per cent weightage to the marks in senior secondary examination and 30 per cent weightage to the candidate's previous work experience.

Among those selected, very few were appointed.

The Rajasthan High Court, hearing a plea challenging the 30 per cent weightage to candidate's work experience, had put a stay on the recruitment process in July 2013. Later, the high court reduced the weightage to 15 per cent.

A special leave petition was then filed in the Supreme Court and in November 2016 the apex court accepted state government's appeal of maintaining the original 30 per cent weightage to work experience.

Now, the chief minister has decided to complete the recruitment process for the remaining 10,029 posts.