Guwahati: An Assam-based organisation has submitted draft modalities to Dispur for starting a special recruitment drive for differently-abled persons.

The draft was submitted to the principal secretary of the social welfare department and a meeting to discuss it will be held within this month, said Nripen Malakar, general secretary of Pratibandhi Suraksha Sangstha Assam, an organisation working for the development of differently-abled persons of the state.

"In the first part of the draft, we have proposed some rules on issuing call letters. We proposed that call letters be sent to a candidate for a certain post based on the data registered about his or her educational qualification in the employment registration department. Classes VIII to X qualified will be eligible for grade IV post and those who had passed higher secondary examination will be eligible for grade III post," Malakar said.

He said under the special drive, interview for all vacant posts of different departments will have to be held under the same selection board like civil service. "We proposed the formation of a selection board by the social welfare department for the drive and giving a time limit for the selection process," he added.

The draft also proposes to carry out the recruitment drive through viva while giving more importance to educational qualification and to reconsider the upper age limit of a candidate.

Chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal had directed the social welfare department in December last year to draw up a recruitment framework in consultation with the associations working for differently-abled persons. This was followed by a meeting with representatives of the associations working for differently-abled persons.

After the meeting, Sonowal said all backlog vacancies for the differently abled would be filled up through a special recruitment drive and directed the social welfare department to prepare a recruitment framework after consulting the associations.

In Assam, around 4,419 posts are vacant under the physically handicapped category in different government departments and the number may go up as assessment in some departments is still going on.