Bengaluru: Stating that thousands of unemployed youths in Karnataka have repeatedly taken to the streets demanding government jobs, Deputy Chief Minister and Revenue Minister G Parameshwara on Friday said the government has fast-tracked the recruitment process and decided to fill 72,000 vacant posts across departments.

Speaking to reporters on Friday in Bengaluru, Parameshwara said the Congress had promised in its manifesto to fill 2.5 lakh vacancies in a phased manner, but the process was delayed due to issues including internal reservation. To resolve the matter, the government constituted the Justice Nagamohan Das Commission and proceeded with recruitment after accepting its recommendations.

Parameshwara said the previous budget had announced recruitment to 56,000 posts, and the Finance Department had already cleared 24,000 of them. Following a review after the change in Chief Minister, the government decided to increase the number of recruitments to 72,000.

He said departments including Revenue, Health, Education and other departments have been directed to issue recruitment notifications without delay. Senior IAS officers Uma Mahadevan and Gaurav Gupta have been appointed to oversee and monitor the implementation of the recruitment process.