Editor,
I wish to highlight a persistent and growing concern regarding the recruitment process for engineering posts in the Rural Works Department (RWD), Water Resources Department (WRD), and the Department of Hydropower in Arunachal Pradesh. These departments (especially RWD) are tasked with executing highly technical civil engineering projects-including bridges and roads under PMGSY and VVP (Vibrant Village Program). However, over the past few recruitment cycles, we have seen agricultural engineering graduates being selected and deployed in these core roles more than civil engineering graduates, often at the expense of civil engineering aspirants.
Key Concerns:
AE 2016 Recruitment: The only RWD seat available that year was filled by an agriculture engineering candidate, despite RWD primarily executing civil projects like roads and bridges.
AE 2018-19 Recruitment: All six WRD seats were awarded to candidates from the agriculture stream, excluding civil engineers entirely from a department whose core work revolves around water and structural engineering.
AESE 2025 Preliminary Exam Disparity: In the recent exam, the civil engineering paper had 44 numerical questions, whereas the agriculture paper had only 3 numerical questions and was significantly easier overall. This imbalance gives an unfair advantage to agriculture stream candidates in a combined merit-based selection system, despite the civil-centric nature of the roles.
Unequal Seat Allocation Practice Across Departments: The Department of Hydropower has rightly categorized and advertised seats separately for Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electronics & Communication Engineering, and Computer Engineering.
However, no such stream-wise seat allocation exists between Civil and Agricultural Engineering in the same department itself.
This trend not only undermines the technical suitability of personnel handling critical public infrastructure, but also demoralizes civil engineering graduates, who invest years mastering the complexities of structural and hydrological design.
Root Cause: Departments like RWD, WRD, and Hydropower do not divide seats according to engineering discipline, unlike the Department of Power, which rationally allocates posts across streams while recruiting through APPSC examinations-which favors Agriculture more in the open competition. This lack of role-discipline alignment is the core issue, leading to mismatched appointments.
Suggested Solution: Introduce clear, discipline-wise bifurcation of seats in the AESE recruitment notification itself, based on the technical requirements of each department (RWD, WRD, Hydropower, etc.), just like the Power Department.
We urge the Arunachal Pradesh Public Service Commission (APPSC) and the concerned departments to consider these issues seriously and introduce systemic reforms that promote fairness, transparency, and technical appropriateness in the recruitment and deployment of engineers.
An Aspirant