Andhra Pradesh Chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy, facing the ire of Telangana Congressmen for his subtle support to the Seemandhra movement, has put on hold job recruitment exams to be conducted by AP Public Service Commission (APPSC) and other agencies so as to ensure participation of youth in the ongoing protests, Telangana leaders and sources alleged.
According to the plan laid down in April this year, the government was to fill 63,621 vacancies in various departments, according to the announcement made by the then chief secretary Minnie Mathew.
Highly-placed sources in the government said the decision to put on hold the recruitment process was taken to ensure the students’ continued participation in the Samaikyandhra movement. The recruitment process, if launched, would force the students to abandon the movement and plunge into studies, a move the Seemandhra politicians feel would blunt the 50-day agitation. “The CM is robbing the unemployed youth of their future. Lakhs of students from poorer sections have been preparing for exams for job recruitments, including constables, teachers etc. The postponement is putting huge financial burden on these youth as they have to overstay in Hyderabad,” said Telangana MP Ponnam Prabhakar, which has been echoed by other leaders.
At least 4-5 lakh students from Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra districts have been waiting for years for the various job notifications. The CM’s “Prabhutva Udyoga Jaatara” had rekindled hopes among the youth to get a government job, but sources said the latest move will shatter many dreams. A staggering 20,790 posts are to be filled in the school education department, about 10,730 in the AP police department, 6095 in the land administration & revenue department, 3208 in transco & discoms, along with dozens of other departments.
In some cases government has issued notification postponing the recruitment drive for 2677 panchayat secretaries as also Group-1 and Group-II posts this month and junior lecturers numbering 4500. Sources in the APPCS say they had no clearance to notify the process even though the commission wrote a letter in mid-August, seeking the government’s view after the CWC announcement on T.
Ironically, in sharp contrast to the latest move, the Congress government had not stopped the recruitment process in 2010 and 2011 when Telangana students were engaged in street protests demanding a separate state. “Even though students boycotted the job exams, government conducted them amidst heavy security by deploying five policemen per a student,” said P Madhusudhan Reddy, secretary general of AP Government Junior Lecturers Association. “If APPSC starts recruitment, all the students will flock to coaching institutes to prepare for the exams. It would weaken the Seemandhra movement,” he said, adding even the division of the state should not come in the way of recruitment, as it involves the lives of the youth of all regions.
Telangana MPs Gutha Sukhender Reddy and Ponnam Prabhakar and former ministers K Venkata Reddy accused the CM of doing injustice to Seemandhra unemployed youth for petty political gains. However, intermediate and technical education minister K Partha Sarathi denied having put on hold the recruitment process in the interest of the Seemandhra movement.
