HYDERABAD: The TRS government came under fire at a meeting on education and employment situation in the state organised by a group of NRIs from Telangana here on Sunday. The meeting was organised by Telangana Global Technologists Association (TGTA), a group of around 200 NRIs from Telangana residing in various countries. The NRIs expressed their unhappiness over the state of affairs in Telangana.
C Achyuth Reddy, a TGTA member working in the United Kingdom, said, “When the state was formed, we were very excited and had high hopes from the TRS government. However, we have not seen much change since it came to power. For example, the number of students belonging to SC, ST and OBC communities who go to the UK or other countries for higher studies is still very low which was the case before Telangana became a state. When TRS leaders visited other countries, our members raised questions which they could not answer.”
Another member of TGTA, Krishna Chaitanya from the US, said, “In the US the student bodies are very strong. Universities spend the money given to them by the government only after getting approval from the student body. There is no democratic space in universities in Telangana.”
PL Vishweshwar Rao, a former professor at Osmania University who is now with the Aam Aadmi Party, raised the issue of high dropout rate among schoolgirls in Telangana which is one of the highest in country. He also said that last year only 8.8 pc of the budget was earmarked for school education and of this amount almost 95 pc was just for salaries of employees. Vishweshwar Rao said, “Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had promised lakhs of jobs but till now just 5,940 posts have been filled. Where are the jobs?”
Senior cardiologist and Telangana Jana Samiti president Dr MF Gopinath said, “Just 2.1 pc SC students, 1.5 pc ST students, 2.5 pc OBC students and around 5 pc OC students reach up to Class 10 in Telangana. The rest are not dropouts but are driven out due to state government’s policies. The educated youth in the state are against the ruling TRS and the family which runs it.”
DK Aruna, senior Congress leader, attacked the Telangana government for starting new residential and day schools without adequate staff and infrastructure.