In what will be seen as a poor reflection of our education system, more than half-a-lakh B.Tech graduates in the state are vying for village revenue officers’ (VRO) posts, the minimum qualification for which is Intermediate (10+2). The revenue department had recently issued a notification to fill 1,172 VRO and 6,063 village revenue assistant (VRA) posts and had received over 10.5 lakh applications. While the minimum qualification required for the VRA posts is SSC (Class X), sources said that some B.Tech graduates had even applied for these.
The starting salary for a VRO is Rs 7,000 per month, while for a VRA, it is Rs 3,000. However, about 60,000 B.Tech graduates who have completed engineering courses in computer science, information technology, mechanical, electrical and civil engineering have applied for both VRO and VRA posts. The selected candidates will have to stay in the villages where they will be posted. Interestingly, many of these students have also applied for the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE-2012) for M.Tech admissions in prestigious institutions like IITs.