For the 117 vacancies, 18,200 applications were received

M.Phil. graduates, postgraduates, engineering graduates and others waited in a long queue in front of Tirunelveli District Central Cooperative Society as certificate verification and interview for 117 posts of salespersons in ration shops in the district began on Wednesday.

Though the basic qualification for this post is just a pass in Plus Two, the educational qualification of the aspirants shocked the officials.

The successful candidates will get a consolidated pay of ₹5,000 a month for a year and then time scale of pay.

As 807 full-time shops and 375 part-time ration shops are being administered by the Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies, 117 vacancies in these shops are to be filled up shortly.

Of the 18,200 applications received, 15,000 candidates were asked to appear for certificate verification and interview. “The exercise will be completed in 10 days as 1,500 candidates are scrutinised every working day,” officials said.

While scrutiny of differently abled candidates was done on the ground floor, others were asked to go to the first floor. A total of 220 officials, led by Joint Registrar Gurumoorthy, verify the certificates and conduct the interview in 30 temporary cubicles.

Some of the overqualified candidates said there was no shame in waiting in the long queue along with those who passed Plus Two.

“Most of us failed to clear the Village Administrative Officer’s examination. If we get something better, we’ll quit this job and move on,” they said.