The state college service commission is yet to send appointment letters to only 200 of the 2,000 teachers it has recruited recently.

The state college service commission had selected 2,000 teachers as assistant professors for 450-odd state-aided colleges, an official of the commission said.

Nearly 1,800 of the selected candidates have received the appointment letters and many have joined duty as well.

The commission was supposed to issue all appointment letters this month but the process had to be held up because of the lockdown.

The West Bengal State College Service Commission had started the drive to recruit 2,000 college teachers in 45 subjects in August 2018. Interviews of the candidates were scheduled from January last year.

“We have issued appointment letters to the selected candidates in 43 subjects. We were supposed to complete the appointment of teachers in the remaining two subjects this month. But the appointment letters could not be issued because of the present situation. We will be in a position to issue the remaining letters only after the situation becomes normal,” said Dipak Kar, the commission chairman.

The 200 posts in which appointments are pending are in geography and chemistry.

The commission had earlier said it would complete the process of selecting 2,000-odd assistant professors for state-aided colleges last October. It received 28,000 applications for the 2,000-odd posts in response to its August 2018 advertisement.

This is the first time such a huge number of candidates have applied for the post of assistant professor.