Popular searches
Andhra Pradesh · Government Exams
The Panchayat Secretary is the executive officer of a gram panchayat in Andhra Pradesh — its record-keeper, its accountant, the convenor of its meetings and the person through whom rural schemes reach the village. Since 2019 the post has existed in two grades with two different doors: Grade-IV, recruited by the Public Service Commission under the Group-III Services heading, and Grade-V, created for the village secretariats and filled by the Panchayat Raj department directly.
Read the status section before anything else. Neither door is open. The commission has not notified Grade-IV since 2018 and, under the rules as amended in 2019, Grade-IV vacancies are now filled by promotion from Grade-V rather than by direct recruitment. The sachivalayam portal carries no recruitment. Pages elsewhere describing a 2026 notification for this post are describing a document that does not exist.
Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Secretary · checked 19 September 2026
The dates, vacancies and rules below are read on the conducting body’s own site and rewritten as each notice appears. The guide beneath carries the full pattern, syllabus, cut-offs and free mock tests.
Checked 19 September 2026
No open recruitment by either route as at 11 September 2026
Recruited by APPSC as Group 3 — last notified December 2018; now promotion-only under the amended rules
Created in 2019 for the village secretariats and filled by the Panchayat Raj department through the District Collectors
A bachelor’s degree for both grades
Notification
Checked 11 September 2026. The commission’s recruitment list from 2021 to 2025 contains no Panchayat Secretary or Group 3 notification, and its home page announcements back to April 2026 contain none. The sachivalayam portal redirects to a scheme site with no recruitment content, and the older recruitment portals no longer resolve. The state’s 2026 job calendar — 10,060 posts in four phases from September 2026 — lists Panchayat Raj posts only as Divisional Development Officer, Deputy MPDO and Assistant Executive Engineer, and no Panchayat Secretary or secretariat post.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| July 2026 | The commission’s computer proficiency test results for the October 2025 session, sat by Panchayat Secretary Grade-V and other secretariat functionaries as a departmental test during probation, were published. |
| June 2026 | The commission issued a web note warning that unauthorised recruitment schedules were circulating on social media and had not been issued by it. |
| February 2020 | District ranking lists for the 2018 Grade-IV recruitment, with Paper 1, Paper 2 and total marks, were published — the last output of the commission route. |
| September 2019 | G.O.Ms.No.148 of the Panchayat Raj department created Grade-V and Grade-VI, filled Grade-V by one-time direct recruitment through the District Collectors, and made Grade-IV promotion-only thereafter. District certificate-verification lists for Grade-V were published the same month. |
| July 2019 | Screening test results for the 2018 Grade-IV recruitment were published; the main examination followed in August. |
| 21 December 2018 | Notification No. 13/2018 for 1,051 Panchayat Secretary Grade-IV posts under Group-III Services — the last commission notification for this post. |
The 2019 amendment states that Grade-IV is thereafter filled by promotion from Grade-V. That is a rule, not a policy announcement, and rules can be amended again — but as they stand, a fresh APPSC direct recruitment to Grade-IV is not what the service rules provide for. A future entry-level recruitment to this post is more likely to be a Grade-V exercise by the department. No official statement on either possibility was found; this is what the rules say, read plainly.
APPSC recruitment notifications APPSC home — web notes and announcements The APPSC Group 3 examination
Overview
Until 2019 there was one route into the post. The commission notified Panchayat Secretary Grade-IV under its Group-III Services heading — in 2016 and again in December 2018 — with a screening test, a two-paper main examination and district-wise appointment by the Collector. The 2018 cycle notified 1,051 posts and published its district ranking lists in February 2020.
In September 2019 the state amended the Panchayat Raj Subordinate Service Rules to add two new grades below Grade-IV: Panchayat Secretary Grade-V, and Grade-VI as Digital Assistant. Grade-V was created for the new village secretariats and, because every post was new, all of them were filled by direct recruitment as a one-time measure — run by the Panchayat Raj department through the District Collectors, not by the commission. The same amendment provides that Grade-IV is thereafter filled by promotion from Grade-V. The order was issued with the commission’s concurrence.
In a web note of 12 June 2026 the commission stated that unauthorised recruitment schedules were being circulated on social media, that no such schedule had been issued by it, and that candidates should rely only on information published through its official website. A Panchayat Secretary notification that exists only on a coaching site or in a forwarded message is one of those.
Eligibility
| Requirement | Grade-IV, commission route (2018) | Grade-V, secretariat route (2019 rules) |
|---|---|---|
| Qualification | A degree from a recognised university. | Any degree from a recognised university. |
| Age | 18 to 42 as on 1 July 2018, with 5 years’ relaxation for SC, ST and BC candidates and 10 for persons with disability. | As set by the department for the recruitment; the service rules do not fix a general limit. |
| Fee | ₹250 processing plus ₹80 examination, with the examination fee exempt for SC, ST, BC, disabled and ex-servicemen candidates, white-card families and unemployed youth. | As set by the recruitment. |
| Pay | The regular scale of the post, ₹16,400 to ₹49,870 in 2018. | Consolidated ₹15,000 a month for a two-year probation, then the scale of ₹15,030 to ₹46,060. |
| Tests during probation | — | The Accounts Test for Local Body Employees Papers I and II, and the computer proficiency test. |
| Appointing authority | The District Collector, against district-wise vacancies. | The District Collector. |
Selection process
Each stage in order, and what it actually tests.
| Stage | Format | What it involves |
|---|---|---|
| Grade-IV — the commission route | Screening test, then two mains papers | As run in 2018: an OMR screening test of 150 marks across general studies and rural development, then a computer-based main examination of two 150-mark papers on the same subjects, with one-third negative marking throughout and district-wise ranking. Detailed on the APPSC Group 3 page. |
| Grade-V — the secretariat route | Direct recruitment by the department, one-time | Run in 2019 by the Panchayat Raj department through the District Collectors as a one-time measure to fill the newly created posts, with district certificate-verification lists published in September 2019. No further Grade-V recruitment has been notified. |
| Probation, for Grade-V | Two years, consolidated pay | The Accounts Test for Local Body Employees Papers I and II and the commission’s computer proficiency test must be passed during probation. Grade-V secretaries sit the proficiency test as a departmental test in the commission’s separate CPT sessions. |
| Promotion to Grade-IV | From Grade-V, under the amended rules | Since the 2019 amendment, Grade-IV vacancies are filled by promotion from Grade-V rather than by fresh direct recruitment. |
Exam pattern
The only published examination for this post is the commission’s Group 3 scheme, last used in 2018. It is set out in full on the APPSC Group 3 page; the summary below is here so that a reader arriving at this page understands what a Panchayat Secretary examination in Andhra Pradesh has actually looked like.
| Stage | Papers | Marks | Counts? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Screening test | General studies and mental ability, 75 questions; rural development in Andhra Pradesh, 75 questions | 150 | No — shortlists only |
| Main examination | Paper 1 general studies and mental ability, 150 questions; Paper 2 rural development and problems in rural areas with special reference to Andhra Pradesh, 150 questions | 300 | Yes — the district ranking |
Sources
Checked 11 September 2026. The Grade-IV examination, eligibility and fees are from Notification No. 13/2018; the creation of Grade-V and Grade-VI, their pay and probation conditions and the promotion rule for Grade-IV are from G.O.Ms.No.148 of the Panchayat Raj department dated 27 September 2019. The 2019 Grade-V recruitment is evidenced by district certificate-verification notices; the vacancy totals reported for it in the press were not found on an official page and are not stated here.
APPSC recruitment notifications APPSC results Notification No. 13/2018 — Panchayat Secretary Grade-IV, Group-III Services G.O.Ms.No.148, Panchayat Raj department, 27 September 2019 — creation of Grade-V and Grade-VI Srikakulam district — Grade-V certificate verification list, September 2019 APPSC web note on unauthorised recruitment schedules, 12 June 2026 APPSC computer proficiency test results web note, July 2026
Exam resources
Six resource pages, each kept in step with the latest official notification.
Questions
No. As at 11 September 2026 the commission had issued no Panchayat Secretary or Group 3 notification since December 2018, the sachivalayam portal carried no recruitment, and the state’s 2026 job calendar listed no Panchayat Secretary or secretariat posts. The commission issued a web note in June 2026 warning that recruitment schedules circulating on social media had not been issued by it.
Grade-IV is the post the commission recruited to under Group-III Services, in the regular pay scale, last notified in 2018. Grade-V was created in September 2019 for the village secretariats, filled by a one-time direct recruitment run by the Panchayat Raj department through the District Collectors, on two years’ consolidated pay with departmental tests to pass during probation. Under the same 2019 amendment, Grade-IV vacancies are now filled by promotion from Grade-V.
Yes. Both notifications the commission has issued under Group-III Services — 2016 and 2018 — were for Panchayat Secretary Grade-IV, and the commission files the syllabus and the archived paper under that name. The Group 3 page on this site sets out that examination in full.
No official statement was found either way. The 2019 amendment to the service rules provides that Grade-IV is filled by promotion from Grade-V, which as the rules stand does not provide for a fresh commission recruitment to Grade-IV. A future entry-level recruitment is therefore more likely to be a Grade-V exercise by the department — but that is what the rules imply, not an announcement.
The 2018 Grade-IV recruitment ran a 150-mark OMR screening test — 75 questions on general studies and mental ability, 75 on rural development in Andhra Pradesh — and then a computer-based main examination of two 150-mark papers on the same two subjects. One-third of a mark was deducted for each wrong answer, and selection was district-wise on the mains. The rural development paper covered the Panchayat Raj Act, rural schemes, the rural economy of the state, local-body finance and the duties of the secretary.
During the two-year probation, the Accounts Test for Local Body Employees Papers I and II and a computer proficiency test — both conducted by the commission in its departmental test and CPT sessions. The July 2026 CPT results web note confirms Grade-V secretaries sitting the proficiency test in that way.
The commission’s archive holds the 2016 screening test paper. The 2018 recruitment’s district ranking lists, published in February 2020 with each candidate’s paper-wise and total marks, show the mark that selected in each district. Both are linked from this page. The 2019 sachivalayam recruitment’s papers were on portals that no longer resolve.
Read the syllabus, attempt a free mock, then fix the section that costs you the most marks.
Already practising? Create Free Account to track your preparation.
