Sambalpur, Dec 17: Signifying a dire shortage of employment in Odisha, at least 8,000 aspirants appeared against 187 posts of homeguards in Odisha’s Sambalpur on Wednesday.

With no spacious exam hall with elaborate arrangements in the town for such an enormous turnout, the runway of the Jamadarpali Airstrip in Sambalpur Town was finally utilized as the rightful Exam venue. Aspirants, here reportedly appeared the written test under the open sky sitting on the bare runway, enduring the bitter cold of late December for a contractual homeguard job that also fetches a meager honorarium.

Significantly, the posts that require at least Class-IV passout had attracted hundreds of graduates, BTech Degree holders with even some postgraduates, to join atleast for an engagement.

Today’s scene at Sambalpur is not the only place to witness acute shortfall of employment. Many potential districts, towns with industrial hubs across the state experience sheer dearth of jobs.

A few months ago, the Steel City Rourkela had witnessed at least 1:20 ratio of total vacancies and number of applicants for homeguard jobs.

According to some sociologists, the state is almost encountering systemic failure in handling large scale recruitment drives. Meanwhile, mass employment drives have been also affected since some years due to postponement of many government recruitment exams for many reasons.