E-literacy to be must for PDOs

 It may soon take aspirants to be computer savvy to work in government service in rural areas too.
The State government is mulling over making it mandatory for candidates who are interested in taking up positions in the newly created Panchayat Development Officers’ (PDO) post to pass a computer literacy test (CLT) with high percentage for eligibility.
The government proposes to recruit as many as 3,750 PDOs during the first phase of direct recruitment. The proposal is to replace the incumbent gram panchayat secretaries with highly qualified computer savvy PDOs to help in better coordination and administration at the grass root level of governance.
“The government spends between Rs 40 lakh to Rs one crore per annum on each gram panchayat. An efficient qualified officer will ensure effective implementation of rural development programmes”, sources in the state secretariat said. Eventually, the government plans to recruit PDOs for all the 5,628 gram panchayats in the state
Accordingly, the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) Department has sought public opinion on making CLT mandatory for the aspirants. Minimum qualification that has been fixed for the post is a bachelor’s degree of a recognised university or equivalent.
According to the draft Karnataka General Service (Development Branch and Local Government Branch) Recruitment of Panchayat Development Officers (Special) (Recruitment Rules) -2009 notified on May 2,  aspirants will have to secure  at least seventy five percent marks in a qualifying CLT to become eligible for recruitment.
Sources said the May 2 notification is one of the first application of the state government’s proposal of making it mandatory for candidates to pass CLT to become eligible for government service.
The government has however kept the policy on hold following opposition from various quarters including the Opposition Congress.
Those opposing the move cite that it goes against the interest of rural and socially deprived candidates.
“The final outcome of the recruitment process will depend on the government’s decision on the policy. If the government gives us the go-ahead RDPR will be one of the first departments to implement the same” the sources added.