The Bihar Vikas Mission, meant to develop the state by fast-tracking chief minister Nitish Kumar's "seven resolves", is struggling to find the right people to man it.
Just 18 out of its 100 high-profile positions have been filled in a recruitment process that was delayed by legal niggles. The state government now plans to hire a reputed HR (human resources) agency to help fill the vacant posts in the Mission.
"Inability to find suitable candidates and the need to avoid legal problems is making the government hire an HR agency to finalise recruitment standards and hire the workforce," a senior official associated with the Mission told The Telegraph on condition of anonymity as the person is not authorised to talk to the media.
The much-publicised vacancies are spread across seven categories - management, technical, finance, research, communication associates, programme analysts and project leads - and promise salaries ranging from Rs 1.25 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh a month.
Altogether 3,700 persons, including experts from different fields who are alumni of reputed educational institutions and were working in multi-national companies, had applied for the positions. But the screening committee - heavily laden with senior bureaucrats - constituted to finalise the appointments found just 24 candidates suitable, of which 18 joined.
"The Bihar government has never recruited people at such high salaries," said a senior Mission official.
"Even IAS officers do not get such high salaries. The pay was aimed at attracting highly qualified, experienced and motivated people who could work for the state's development, but we did not get the desired candidates."
Another reason why the state failed to attract experts, the official said, could be that the pay was still less than what such candidates would get in multinational companies in metropolitan cities.
"Moreover, half-a-dozen candidates did not join the positions even after clearing the selection rounds," the Mission official said. "Some of them said they would not be able to work to their capacity in the state as it lacks infrastructure. Others pointed out that the tenure of the Mission job was just a year and it could potentially jeopardise their careers."
Ten candidates who had applied for various positions at the Mission but did not qualify filed four writ petitions in Patna High Court in August.
The petitioners challenged the basis on which selections were made, including fixing of cut-off marks for interviews at 60 for those from the general category, 55 for those from backward castes and 50 for those from Scheduled Castes even before conducting the interviews.
The petitioners also argued that vacancies reserved for women candidates or other categories had not been filled up.
The high court bench of Justice Ajay Kumar Tripathi dismissed the cases on October 5, saying they lacked merit, but the judicial process delayed recruitment efforts at the Mission.
Asked about the government's plan to hire an HR agency, Brajesh Mehrotra, Mission member secretary and principal secretary of cabinet secretariat department, said: "A decision on it will be taken after the Durga Puja vacations. An HR agency is already preparing the organisational structure of the Mission."
Philadelphia-based management consulting firm Hay Group is preparing the human resources policy for the Mission.
The remaining vacancies will be filled up soon and the recruitment process will start in some time, Mehrotra added.
