Patna, Dec. 26: The best and brightest have shown interest in working for the state’s rural development projects.

Top government sources said as many as 5,622 applicants, including several with degrees from the IITs, IIMs and top management institutes, have applied for the 32 posts for which advertisements had been put out by the Bihar Rural Development Society earlier this year.

These posts are key to the effective implementation of schemes under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA).

The rural development society, constituted by the state government last year, is to play the role of nodal agency for implementation of MNREGA in Bihar. The society functions under the control of the state rural development department.

“For the single post of chief operating officer, over 60 applications have been received. One of the applicants is an IIM graduate. Two have engineering degrees from IITs and four candidates have done courses from the Institute of Rural Management-Anand,” a top source in the rural development department, who is closely associated with the recruitment process, told The Telegraph but requested anonymity as he is not authorised to speak on the issue.

The person selected for the top post would get a monthly salary ranging from Rs 1.25 lakh to Rs 2 lakh. In addition, he or she would also be entitled to other emoluments which would be on a par with what is being offered to top managers in the private sector.

The source said that going by the applications received, the selection panel would have a surfeit of candidates to choose from as most have degrees from reputed institutes and many of them are already working in the corporate world.

The official, however, refused to divulge details of the applicants as it would hinder the recruitment process.

About a dozen advertised posts carry salary tags between Rs 65,000 and Rs 1 lakh. Even the junior most post of executive guarantees a minimum salary of Rs 25,000 in addition to the emoluments.

The process of shortlisting the candidates is likely to be completed within a month. Those on the shortlist would be called for group discussion and personal interview before a panel of senior officials and experts.

The salaries would be paid from the MNREGA fund itself.

Bihar, which has around 1.4 crore below poverty line families, has not been able to get funds under MNREGA like some other states of comparable size. Bihar got about Rs 1,800 crore under MNREGA in 2009-10 and around Rs 2,600 crore in 2010-11. The state is expected to create a demand of about Rs 3,500 crore this fiscal (2011-12). This figure, however, appears quite small when one considers the fact that Rajasthan has generated a demand of over Rs 8,000 crore under MNREGA.