Panaji, Jun 16 (IANS): Nearly five years after the Goa government banned mass recruitment in government services, the Pramod Sawant-led state administration on Wednesday withdrew the government notification "with immediate effect".

The decision comes ahead of the upcoming state assembly polls which are scheduled for early 2022 and days after top state BJP leaders and the party's national general secretaries BL Santosh and CT Ravi met to discuss preparations for the polls.

The ban on mass recruitment was imposed by the earlier BJP-led coalition government led by then Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar.

Over the last few months Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has announced recruitment to thousands of posts in various government departments, including the police department where the initial process for filling up more than 1,000 is underway.

Sawant on Wednesday had also ruled out early elections, saying the state assembly polls would be held as scheduled in February 2022.