Sources: 7,000 engineers, graduates applied for 549 sanitary worker posts

A total of
7,000 engineers, graduates and diploma-holders has applied for 549 posts of
sanitary workers in the city Corporation.

The
Corporation had called for applications for the posts of 549 grade-1 sanitary
posts and 7,000 applicants appeared for the three-day interview and
verification of certificates which began on Wednesday, official sources said.

It was found
on verification that nearly 70% of the candidates have completed SSLC, the
minimum qualification, and most of them were engineers, post- graduates,
graduates and diploma-holders, they said.

In some
cases, it was found the applicants were already employed in private firms, but
the government job attracted them as the starting salary is Rs 15,700.

Those
already working as the contract sanitary workers for the last 10 years have
also applied for these permanent jobs.

Many
graduate applicants had not got the jobs according to the qualification and had
to work to support the family with just Rs 6,000-Rs 7,000 as salary in private
firms and toiled for 12 hours with no job security, they said.

On the other
hand, sanitary workers job seeks a salary of nearly Rs 20,000 with the work
timings of three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening, which
also provides them an option of doing other petty works during idle time.