BADIN, Feb 19: Non-availability of prescribed application forms for jobs in the education department will debar hundreds of prospective candidates from appearing in interviews.

The candidates have demanded that Sindh Chief Minister Ali Mohammad Mahar and Education Minister Irfanullah Marwat should extend the date for submitting the forms by one month or make the application forms available in all banks.

Education authorities have invited applications for posts of primary school teachers and asked the intending candidates to collect the forms from Habib Bank Limited branches against the payment of Rs100. The distribution of job applications started on Tuesday.

The Badin HBL branch distributed 2,000 application forms on the first day and the rest of the candidates could not be provided with the application forms as the bank ran short of the forms. In protest, the candidates, who had come from rural villages, staged a sit-in on the Quaid Azam Road.

The protesters dispersed after the bank manager assured them that they would be provided with the application forms the next day. However, on the next day 1,000 application forms were made available and a large number of the job seekers could not get the forms.

Again the candidates resorted to protest and staged a rally against the bank authorities and the government. They criticized the education authorities for providing the application forms through a single bank.

Some of the candidates complained that the application forms were being sold at Rs150 outside the bank. On Wednesday, only 500 forms were made available, leaving several candidates waiting in queue.