Agri dept disrespects bond signed by students

SHILLONG: The Agriculture department has shortage of staff, but the government is yet to call the bonded candidates to fill up the vacancies.
Reply to an RTI query filed by the Meghalaya Agricultural Students and Graduates Association (MASGA) with the Agriculture department has revealed that the department is suffering from shortage of staff in terms of ADO/HDO/Scientific Officers (Research), Soil Testing and Seed Testing Officers and others even though there is a huge number of vacancies.
The last recruitment was in 2008 and since then there has been no recruitment which brings out the question as to when the department will call the bonded candidates to fill up the vacancies.
Every year, based on the HSSLC (Science) results, the department of Agriculture selects at least 20 students as state sponsored-bonded candidates to study B.Sc (Agri/Horti) in various Central and State Agriculture Universities to specialize in the required field after which they are absorbed into the department through 3(f). However, this has not been the case for the past nine years and because of the department’s shortcomings, many of the older agriculture graduates will be deprived of jobs in the department.
Moreover, the department has made the bond-cum-agreement of the students of 2014 batches onwards as obsolete.
MASGA has asked the department to have a transparent recruitment process.