Govt to recruit 25k sanitation workers, five-yr contract mandatory

Jaipur: Rajasthan govt is preparing to recruit nearly 25,000 sanitation workers under a new model that will require selected candidates to serve on contract for five years before becoming eligible for regular appointment.

The local self-govt department is set to conduct the recruitment under the Rajasthan Contractual Recruitment Rules, 2022, with a notification expected to be issued soon. During the contractual period, workers will receive a fixed salary, and their performance, discipline and responsibilities will be assessed. Regularisation will depend on this review.

The new framework comes after sanitation worker recruitment in the state remained embroiled in controversy for the past five years. Disputes over experience certificates, allegations of forged documents and disagreements over recruitment priorities led to the cancellation of recruitment drives on two separate occasions.

A recruitment process for 13,184 posts initiated during the previous govt was withdrawn in April 2023. Later, the present govt announced recruitment for 23,820 posts, but that process was also cancelled in Aug 2024.

Officials are currently finalising recruitment guidelines after consulting employee organisations and urban local bodies. The recruitment has already been included in the govt’s annual calendar, indicating that the process is likely to begin shortly.

LSG has clarified that no community will receive special preference. Appointments will be made under the existing reservation policy, with eligible candidates from SC, ST, OBC and EWS categories receiving benefits as per norms.

It has also directed urban local bodies to ensure that sanitation workers are assigned only sanitation-related duties and not deployed for administrative work, so that civic cleaning services remain unaffected.