West Bengal government kicks off hiring to step up food distribution in the Maoist belt

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government has decided to recruit 400 people immediately to step up its public distribution system in the Maoist belt and other under-developed areas. It is going to hire retired government officers with good track record on contract basis in a bid to bypass a long-drawn system of hiring through Public Service Commission, a senior minister with the Mamata Banerjee government said.

"We don't have enough people to carry out public distribution of rice and other food items in Jangalmahal and other difficult terrains of the hills and Sunderbans. We need people urgently and so has decided to bypass the Public Service Commission," state's minister for food and food supplies Jyotipriya Mallik told ET.

The minister said these people will be hired on three-months contracts, which will be renewed for good performers. They will be deployed for the government's scheme of distributing rice at Rs 2 per kilo in the Maoist belt for families below poverty level.

The Leftist trade unions have launched protests against hiring retired officials as the state has nearly one crore of unemployed youth.

The food supply department has 1,950 vacant posts and has in parallel initiated to fill in these vacancies through Public Service Commission. "This takes take two-to-three years," Mallik said.