With the Coimbatore Municipal Corporation offering an initial monthly salary of Rs 15,700 to sanitary workers, there has been a deluge of applications from engineers and graduates for the 549 vacancies advertised.
About 7000 candidates turned up for the walk-in interviews that took place over three days. Interestingly, a significant 70 per cent of the candidates had passed SSLC (which was the minimum qualification asked for), while most others were highly qualified, including engineers, graduates, postgraduates, and diploma holders. Some of the applicants were already employed in the private sector, but were probably attracted by the security offered by a government job. Also, the candidates’ private-sector jobs were paying them hardly Rs 6000 to Rs 7000 a month.
Some of the applicants were already employed as sanitary workers on contract basis, and have actually been working with the Corporation for almost a decade more. It was the hope of bagging a permanent government job that drew them.
The selected candidates will be required to work for three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening. That means, they will only have to put in six hours of work every day, and can take up other work in their free time.
Though the initial salary offered is Rs 15,700, the workers can hope to receive about Rs 20,000 over a period of time. There are about 2000 permanent sanitary workers and 500 contract workers employed with the Coimbatore Municipal Corporation at present.
