Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the state was working on creating more jobs. (Representational)
More than 12 lakh candidates, including engineers and doctorate holders, have applied for roughly 6,000 Patwari positions in Madhya Pradesh, baring concerns about the cloaked unemployment in the state.
The Patwari job position is that of a land revenue official, and while a graduate degree is enough to apply, many students with advanced degrees, such as engineering, science, and MBA graduates, have lined up for the roles.
The exam for Patwari posts is scheduled for March 15 and will be held in two sessions. The last time the state held exams for Patwari jobs was in 2017-18. This year, out of the 12.79 lakh candidates, 1,000 are doctorates, 85,000 have engineering degrees, 1 lakh are MBA graduates, and about 1.8 lakh have post-graduate degrees in arts and science.
While Madhya Pradesh's unemployment rate was among the lowest of states at 1.9 per cent in January according to the think tank Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the vast number of applicants for the Patwari jobs may point to a reason to worry.
Candidates such as Praveen Sharma, a 29-year-old engineering graduate, see even such tightly contested openings for government jobs as a hard-to-miss opportunity to secure their future in a challenging job market. "Instead of opening up all vacancies at one go, they should have paced them out. Now, many have crossed the age limits," he said.
Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, brushed off concerns about unemployment or underemployment. "Thousands of posts are being filled in various sectors - teachers, patwari, police. We are working on helping people find employment in government jobs, and entrepreneurship, as well as creating jobs by attracting investments."
The opposition Congress party, however, accused the government of failing to provide employment opportunities for the people of Madhya Pradesh. Abbas Hafiz, a spokesperson for Congress, said, "The vast number of applicants shows that the Shivraj government has failed in creating employment opportunities in the state."