Rajasthan MLA's 10th Pass Son Gets Peon Job, Competes Against 129 Techies, 23 Lawyers, 393 Postgrads

The selection of Ramkrishna Meena, son of a BJP MLA, for the post of a peon --a class IV post, has raised eyebrows among political circles in the Rajasthan.

Reason: Ramkrishna, 30, has studied till Class 10, while at least 129 engineers, 23 lawyers, a chartered accountant and 393 postgraduates in arts were among 12,453 people interviewed for 18 posts — in this case, for jobs as peons — in the Rajasthan Assembly secretariat. It was Raj Jamwa Ramgarh MLA Jagdish Narayan Meena’s son who made the cut along with 17 others, reported The Indian Express.

Now, the Congress is demanding a probe into the matter. State Congress chief Sachin Pilot has asked for a high level investigation into the recruitment process of class IV employees in the assembly. He has alleged that the recruitment of relatives of BJP leaders in the state has resulted in unemployment among youth. Pilot slammed the BJP for securing government jobs for their family members and relatives, added the newspaper.

Ramkrishna has been ranked 12th on the list and is far ahead of more qualified candidates who had applied for the exam. The selection list came out on December 15 on assembly website, it added.

Jagdish Narayan Meena has rejected the Opposition’s allegations, saying there is “no scope for discrepancy” in his son’s selection.

“My son applied as part of normal procedure for the job at the assembly and was selected after an interview,” Meena told newspaper.

Pilot has alleged that there were similar complaints of nepotism during the selection of "gram sevaks". He said it was alleged that BJP leaders' relatives had been selected as "gram sevaks" in place of "Vidhyarthi Mitras", reported The Times of India.

Meena said politics was not everybody's cup of tea and that’s why he had not taken the opportunity to launch his son in politics.

This is the second time an MLA's son has applied for a Grade IV job in government. Earlier, BJP legislator Heera Lal Verma's son Hansraj, who had studied till Class 8, had appeared for an interview at Ajmer's Krishi Upaj Mandi (Rajasthan State Agriculture Marketing Board) in 2015. A two-time MLA from Tonk district, Verma, who was a state government officer before joining politics, had said then that his son was "less educated" and, therefore, eligible only for a Grade IV job, the ToI report added.