Fadnavis asks BMC chief to drop first-attempt exam pass criteria for clerk recruitment

Mumbai: Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday wrote a letter to Bhushan Gagrani, BMC commissioner, to drop the recruitment condition that a candidate must have cleared Class 10 and graduation exams in the first attempt.
The BMC had recently advertised for the posts of 1,846 positions of clerk cum typists.
“Many times, a student can’t pass examinations due to many reasons, but this does not mean that the student is not brilliant. This has created an impression that injustice will be done to students who could not pass exams on the first attempt,” said Fadnavis in his letter asking the BMC chief to consider relaxing the conditions.
The BMC has maintained that it wants good and talented persons for the clerk cum typist posts. An official of BMC said, “We want these clerks cum typists to be well-versed in h both Marathi and English. But there are some political parties which say that an applicant must be well versed only in one language. We can’t dilute the conditions.”
The BMC has still not taken a call on the issue, sources said, adding that the BMC officials will brief Fadnavis next week on the issue.
Sources in BMC said that the decision to have graduates who have cleared examinations in first attempt was taken by then municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta in 2017, but this is first recruitment happening since then.
Meanwhile, AAP protested with students against the conditions claiming this decision was ridiculous and staged a protest at the BMC headquarters. They were detained by the police.
AAP delegation called on Milin Sawant, Joint Municipal Commissioner in charge of general administration, BMC. “He was supportive of our demands and assured us that our point of view will be considered,’’ an AAP spokesperson said
“It is ridiculous that such conditions which are not applicable for MPSC and UPSC are applicable for BMC clerks. The first attempt condition is not even found in the public sector. We will continue our protests and will move court if need be. We hope better sense prevails in the BMC administration,” the spokesperson added.