AGARTALA: There was a time when studying engineering was considered to be key for a guaranteed placement in government services in Tripura.
But today’s scenario is far from what old days used to be.
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According to unemployed engineers, for the past six years, Tripura government did not initiate a single recruitment drive for engineers, particularly, for branches like civil, mechanical and electrical— that come under Tripura Engineering Service Act.
On the other hand, the total number of unemployed engineers in the state stands somewhere near five thousand.
“Engineering became a passion for students because of Tripura government’s successive recruitment drives between 2007 to 2016. In these exams held in the year 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013 and 2016 about 1000 engineers were recruited for departments like PWD, water resource etc,” a source said.
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These regular exams set off an effect which resulted in a craze for engineering courses like civil, mechanical and electrical.
Even some private engineering institutes like ICFAI and TECHNO India opened their campuses here to cater the courses in demand to aspiring students.
“Right now, the situation is that the figure of unemployed engineers in Tripura stands at nearly five thousand mark and for the past six years, no advertisement for recruitment has been issued,” said the source.
Recently, a group of unemployed engineers wrote a number of letters to the departmental heads and secretaries for PWD, DWS and Rural Development.
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The job aspirants also met the top officials in person to know the main reason behind discontinuation of the exams.
“In the last couple of years, a sizable number of officials retired. And, recently above 300 junior engineers of two departments were elevated to the post of assistant engineers. Consequently, thousands of posts are lying vacant in the departments.
“When we talked with the officials, we were told that the file is in process. No one denied the fact that there is a dearth of manpower in the key departments responsible for development activities,” said one of the unemployed engineers.
Thousands of students every year pass out from the colleges like National Institute Technology, Tripura Institute of Technology, ICFAI and others but the market of jobs is shrinking day by day.
According to students, if the government does not provide employment, it should encourage private players to come and absorb the engineers now forced to pursue something else rather than for what they are trained for.