COLOSSAL FAILURE OF BRS ON JOBS FRONT 

 (MY ARTICLE WHICH REMAINED UNPUBLISHED)

Hyderabad, Oct. 20: With the death of Pravallika, a TSPSC aspirant by hanging herself in the city’s coaching hub Ashok Nagar has once again put the spotlight on the performance of the BRS government on the jobs front. Jobs for locals has been the leitmotif in all phases of the statehood agitation whether it is the 1956 mulki agitation, 1969 Jai Telangana movement or the last phase of the struggle. 

 

While undivided AP had 12.5 lakh government employees, post bifurcation Telangana got five lakh jobs while the remaining went to AP. The number of employees vacant in the State has been pegged at various figures by the government and committees appointed by it. Vacancies were pegged at one and half lakhs when the State was formed. The TSPSC chairman Ghanta Chakrapani who retired on December 17th, 2020 had claimed that he was able to fill 28,000 jobs until 2018 from 2015 having given notifications for 32,000 jobs. No notifications were issued post this until 2022.

 

The actual number of posts vacant and their filling up have remained a bone of contention between political parties and the State government. While the BRS claims that 2.25 lakh jobs have been filled the opposition parties say hardly one lakh have been filled at all levels.

 

 The PRC (Pay Revision Committee) headed by C.R. Biswal, constituted in July 2018 pegged the vacancies at 1,91,126 and mentioned that the Telangana government is working with 61 percent of its total staff strength when it submitted its report in December 2020. Post this KCR said notifications will be issued for 80,000 jobs but issued only for 30,000 jobs of which many were related to the police department. While Group-1 exam held in October 16th, 2022 was cancelled after allegations of leakage of question papers, the exam held again on June 11, 2023 was cancelled owing to absence of biometrics and the provision of OMR sheets sans hall ticket numbers.

 

The government’s Socio-Economic Survey 2023 claims that the government through TSPSC (Telangana State Public Service Commission) issued 135 direct recruitment notifications for around 55,144 vacancies in the past 8 years. During 2022, the commission survey says has notified the filling up of 17,134 posts through direct recruitment. (up to January 1st, 2023) but steers clear of how many have finally been conducted and jobs filled in the process in nine years.

 

The attitude of the TRS on the jobs front has always been dicey is evident by its performance and response to queries in the Supreme Court says advocate K. Sravan Kumar who impleaded in a case filed by one J.K. Raju seeking basic facilities like drinking water and toilets in schools in the united AP. “When we joined the W.P (C) No. 631/2004 and filed a Contempt petition (C) 532/2013 in response the governments of Telangana and AP said there are no vacancies and that they are going to rationalize posts based on needs. But a committee appointed by the Supreme Court found 15,000 vacancies in the united state. Post this the Telangana government issued notification for filling up of 8,792 posts. This led to the only instance of recruitment of teachers by the Telangana government in 2017. Some of them are still awaiting their jobs owing to court cases. While govt schools were not increasing private ones were springing up indicating the need for more schools,” he said.

 

We also sought removal of some 30 teachers from duties like being PAs to MLAs and ministers, he said.

 P. Ram Mohan Reddy, president of Telangana State BEd, DEd Organization who aided in pursuing the public interest petition says, “The CM after claiming that they would issue a mega TRT (Teacher Recruitment Test) for 13,500 jobs issued notification for only 5,089 posts. Of these some 500 backlog posts for teachers in Urdu medium will not be filled owing to lack of candidates from that medium from among SC, ST, BC-B, BC-D categories. Hence the actual recruitment that would materialize is 500 posts less than the 5,089 posts announced. Knowing this the government could have issued posts for other categories while issuing them.”

 

Even though the government did not hold a TRT after 2017, the number of those who have applied are 1,65,000 significantly less as the School Assistant posts in high school for Maths subject are not being filled in 18 of the 33 districts of the State. The exam fee however has been increased five-fold from Rs 200 in 2017 to Rs 1,000 now. The teachers’ unions peg the number of vacancies at 20,000. 

 

The government is slated to promote 6,000 SGT (Secondary Grade Teachers) who teach the primary school kids until fifth class as school assistants to high schools. 2,000 school Assistants (who teach at high school) are due for promotion as Grade 2 head masters. Hence, 6,000 + 2,000 = 8,000 teacher posts would fall vacant. State currently has around five lakh BEd and Ded qualified candidates of whom around four lakhs have qualified TET (Teacher Eligibility Test) and are awaiting recruitment.

 

This government does not have a policy on jobs. Giving employment should be seen as part of developmental exercise to implement its policies and not as expenditure. All the notifications issued by them have loopholes and ended up in court cases. A generation has lost job opportunities. The question papers prepared for the police department did not have Telugu translations of questions in English as mandated leading to the court case and the High Court gave an order to remove them and evaluate. The episode mirrors the negligence that the board seems to have, said M.D. Riyaz, competitive exam coach and TPCC state spokesperson who was held for being part of student protests.

 

Reactions of aspirants:

Aspirants preparing at the city’s Central Library ask, having denied that Pravallika had died owing to pressure of finding a job and denying that she had even applied for a TSPSC job they wonder if the government henceforth would give jobs to someone in the family of those die owing to personal reasons. Having been caught lying after exposure of her hall tickets efforts are being made to divert attention from the real issue, says A. Sudhakar (30), an MSc in Zoology.

 

To add insult to injury after the failure of the BRS government failing to give unemployment allowance, a question in the TSPSC exam asked what is the amount of allowance that was promised to the youth? Are we to prepare on what the BRS had promised in its manifesto? An English paper for junior lecturer exam had 47 questions from one chapter instead of giving weightage to the entire syllabus proportionately, Sudhakar said, while his friend N. Suresh adds even the number of districts in the State was a question reflecting the lackadaisical attitude in preparing question papers.

 

The State government did not even go on appeal to the Supreme Court on the Group-1 exam issue after they were cancelled. No further date has also been announced.

 

Gade Sindhu, another TSPSC aspirant asks, “KTR’s lies about Pravallika have been thoroughly exposed. That she had applied for Group 1 to 4 and DAO (divisional accounts officer) posts is clear now. If she had a love affair its her personal choice and how can anyone say that she did not have tension on the exam front? As the BRS manifesto steered clear of jobs we are thinking of using our vote to dislodge them from power. We end up spending Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per month on our hostel along with a study hall fee Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000. This doesn’t include coaching fees.”

 

The DAO post (divisional accounts officer) a Group-1 post had one lakh aspirants vying for 53 posts indicative of the unemployment and the competition we face. In that the SIT said 49 aspirants had accessed the question paper and we were basically competing for those four jobs. How is it our concern that Congress party took the issue to the courts? If the government does not hold exam as per norms don’t we have the right to approach the courts, Sindhu said. 

 

“None cared to listen and investigate when we complained of paper leaks but the police are going overboard now to find excuses for the BRS government with the elections approaching fast. Being a girl from a poor family it became easy for them but did not act in the TSPSC leakage issue as big wigs are involved,” Sindhu said adding with no political party trying to organise us we protested coordinating through social media like Telegram and WhatsApp. The governments should understand the agony of students.

 

Aspirants say there is a visible fall in the number of those who visit the central library to study.

 

Intellectuals take on BRS on jobs front:

 

Analysing the situation, Prof. G. Haragopal said, “The Telangana government did not go by the spirit of Telangana struggle and one man took decisions according to his whims and fancies and dialogue was absent. This government is infamous for having neglected both on education and the jobs front. Having created 33 districts they did not hold one Group-1 exam successfully to have officers who can run the administration. When a panel consisting of 18 members including me, Chukka Ramayya, Kodandaram among others was asked to prepare syllabus we finalized it in three months as youth were expecting jobs but tests have not been held properly for 10 years now, he said. 

 

Having given concessions for various private enterprises the government could have insisted on hiring 30 to 50 percent for local youth. With around 30 lakh youth around sans jobs we are sitting on a volcano. The only silver lining is on holding communal harmony and water. But the government instead of trying to secure states due share in Krishna water concentrated on Kaleshwaram, a project on river Godavari on which there is no dispute on water. The first priority should have been the Palamuru Rangareddy Lift Irrigation Project by sourcing water from Jurala to give water to areas like Narayanpet, he said. 

 

Responding to questions on the performance of BRS on the jobs front, Prof. Kodandaram, founder of Telangana Jana Samithi (TJS) said, “The manifesto of BRS steers clear of any mention of jobs and talks of doles like old age pensions, Dalit bandhu beneficiaries to be increased, life insurance to be given to one and all, supply of fine rice and subsidy on gas cylinders. The students should remember that securing job is not their individual onus alone and is dependent on government policies.” The TJS pegs the number of jobs filled by the KCR government in nine years at 88,913 across the government departments inclusive of those filled by the TSPSC.

 

Addressing a meet held under the banner of unemployed JAC to condemn remarks by minister KTR on Pravallika, he said, “The government is standing before the people as the culprit and is trying to cover up their failure by assassinating the character of the young woman. The government claims they have given 2.25 lakh jobs. We are throwing a challenge to them to prove their claims. They have hardly given one lakh jobs.”

 

Another obstacle cited for the delay in recruitment for TSPSC was the lack of clarity on the zonal system. The Telangana government which initially stated that the entire state would be considered one zone had to revoke its stand and form seven zones in tune with the Article 371D which was meant to ensure reservation for locals in education and jobs. The process started after the formation of 31 districts in 2016 was finally finalized in August, 2021 by the Centre. Teachers and other unions aver the government lacked the will to fill jobs. But it may be recalled that the recruitment of teachers which happened in 2017 was done as per the old zonal system and districts.

 

P. Ashok Kumar, TSPSC coach who is facing several cases for standing by the aspirants says, “Jobs have been at the centre of agitations in Telangana all through. The BRS losing or even a fall in their seats is courtesy their dismal failure on the job front is crystal clear now. Even if the BRS forms a government again there will be movements to bring it down.” 

 

Explaining how the aspirants are being troubled, he said, “By tweaking norms like setting up a higher benchmark for long jump in selection for SI posts or changing the minimum qualification marks for lower castes to take exams or not giving notification for Telugu medium aspirants for junior college lecturers this government has forced students to either approach courts or take to streets to seek holding of exams and even appointments post announcement of results. In all 14 TSPSC exam papers were leaked.”

 

 There should be local quota even in the private sector and Rs 10,000 crore budget for the unemployed. The BRS seems to have understood that the youth are angry and are promising annual job calendar now. What did they do for nine years? The BRS government has filed seven cases against me. Sections like 120-B (criminal conspiracy to commit a crime), under 20 to 30 sections have been filed saying that I am provocating the students. I am attending courts for four days in a month. Once the charge sheet is filed in the agitation seeking postponement of Group-2 exam also I will file a quash petition in the High Court, he said. 

 

The woes of the Physical education teachers who appeared for the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) and qualified for the physical education teachers (PET) exam way back in 2017 and got mired in court cases serves as a typical example for this: The 1,232 qualified candidates to fill 616 vacancies in government-run residential schools still await their jobs despite the high court directing TSPSC to declare results and start recruitment. Despite guidelines of the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) stating that to teach students up to class VIII, PETs must have intermediate qualification and to teach classes IX and X, PETs must be physical education graduates and have participated at state/district-level sports. The TSPSC failed to act despite the High Court directing it to segregate the two categories and declare results based on merit.

 

In another instance a TSPSC notification issued for Gurukul Junior College candidates with only MPED (master of physical education) was asked which is sufficient as per NCTE norms but the notification issued for intermediate junior colleges said the candidates should possess an additional PG qualification. And for various other subjects junior lecturers were rightly asked for a PG in their respective areas only for taking the exam. (G Ram Mohan)