July 12, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 26, 1428

KARACHI, July 11: The Sindh government has so far placed over 3,714 post-graduates in various departments under the National Internship Programme (NIP) and is set to accommodate third batch due this month.

Sources in the Services and General Administration Department (S&GD) confirmed to Dawn that the placement of second batch (2,082 internees) was almost completed.

The handling of internees by the S&GD has witnessed an improvement after the placement of first batch (1,632 internees) since the 12 female internees have been appointed in the department and the entire responsibility of registration and placement is assigned to them.

From calling the selected candidates under the NIP to their placement and maintenance of record is now being done by these educated youths who have better administrative skills than the department’s staff.

About one hundred selected candidates, mostly from interior Sindh, were invited daily by the S&GD for registration and placement in town of their own choice. The District Coordination Officers (DCOs) in the interior placed them in various departments mainly in finance, education, health, agriculture, etc.

Meanwhile, the S&GD has stopped placement of internees in the IT department as it has no capacity to accommodate more internees. Over 150 youths are now working in the IT ministry.

Additional Secretary S&GD Aijaz Memon told Dawn on Wednesday that about 30 to 35 per cent of the youth placed under the NIP were girls.

The federal government had received about 77,000 applications including 60,000 online requests for internship from the province. The S&GD however has no idea about the number of internees to be placed in the province under the NIP.

Most of the internees placed in the province have master’s degree in medical, teaching, IT, engineering, marketing, finance and agriculture. There are quite a good number of doctors and engineers who prefer internship over the job because of low salary in the field.

The internees are paid Rs10,000 stipend every month whereas a doctor or engineer gets only Rs6,000-8,000 per month in the field job.

The S&GD also provides transport facility to the internees posted at various ministries in the Sindh Secretariat through bus points operated from various city areas.

Under the rules any internee willing to abandon the programme will have to inform the S&GD in writing about two weeks in advance.

Sources at the S&GD said that the internees were placed according to their qualification and towns of their own choice. The department, however, discourages any change in placement once an internee has been assigned to a department.