Amid the ongoing protests by unemployed youth and student bodies over job recruitments in Telangana, Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Friday announced that a job calendar will be released after discussions during the upcoming budget session of the state Assembly.
He made it clear that the government is committed to filling all the vacancies in the government departments and ready to take decisions to address the issues raised by the job aspirants.
In a statement, the Chief Minister urged the unemployed youth not to fall prey to the conspiracies hatched by some political parties and vested interest groups, as he assured that the government will take appropriate decisions to ensure that no legal hurdles are faced due to the sudden change of rules during the examination period.
The statement came on a day when various groups, including the student wing of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), staged protests outside the Telangana Public Service Commission, demanding an increase in Group-2 and Group-3 jobs, allowing 100 candidates for every post in Group-1 main exams and release of a job calendar.
Revanth Reddy cautioned that the unemployed will be meted out injustice and the present job notifications will also be cancelled if the government takes wrong decisions like the previous BRS regime.
The Chief Minister said the government has already issued notifications to fill 28,942 posts as promised to the unemployed. It has also cleared all legal hurdles pending for years to fill Group 1, Group 2, and Group 3 posts, he claimed.
The Chief Minister assured that the job calendar will be prepared in such a way that the job aspirants will not face any difficulties in appearing for other recruitment exams which are being conducted by the Central government and other recruitment boards.
Revanth Reddy also accused the opposition parties of playing with the lives of the unemployed for political gains when the government is striving hard to render justice to the job aspirants.
He said the unemployed youth will suffer more and the official process for recruitment will be stalled if the government takes decisions contrary to the provisions in the notifications under the pressure of political conspiracies.
He also held a meeting on job notifications with the leaders of Congress, Youth Congress, Teachers’ Joint Action Committee, and Osmania University student leaders.
After the meeting, the Chief Minister called Chief Secretary Santhi Kumari and other top officials and discussed the demands raised by the unemployed youth and the ways to solve them.
The meeting reviewed the demand for the selection of candidates at the rate of 1:100 in the place of 1: 50 in the Group 1 mains exam. The officials explained to the CM that the Group 1 exam was postponed twice due to paper leak and wrong decisions taken by the previous government.
Four lakh candidates appeared for the Group 1 prelims exam which was conducted after a gap of 12 years. The TGPSC (Telangana Public Service Commission) conducted the preliminary exam recently. According to the notification, the selection for mains will be done on the basis of merit in the prelims at the rate of 50 candidates for each post.
Officials explained to the CM that the present rules permitted 50 candidates, based on merit in the prelims, for each post to appear for mains . The threat of court intervention is not ruled out if the rules are amended to select 100 candidates for each post and the risk of cancellation of notification is also there.
The officials told the CM that changing provisions in the notification will also not be legally valid, as they brought to the CM’s notice the comments made by the high court when the Group 1 exam was cancelled for the second time.
The officials said the high court cancelled the exam for the sole reason that the biometric system was not followed as per the then notification issued.
The officials also explained the judgment delivered by the Supreme Court in the case of UPSC vs Gaurav Dwivedi in 1999 when the top court made it clear that giving opportunity to more people than mentioned in the notification will do injustice to those who have already qualified.
The CM and the officials also deliberated on the increase in Group 2 and Group 3 posts.
The officials informed Revanth Reddy that increasing the posts when the examination process is on will amount to violation of the notification and the chance of court intervention will be plenty.
The government increased the number of Group 1 posts because the Group 1 notification was issued afresh. There is no such flexibility to increase the posts in Group 2 and Group 3 notifications, officials said.