VIJAYAWADA: Pressing their demands, the Joint Action Committee (JAC) members of Andhra Pradesh Sainikula Hakkula Porata Samithi launched a two-day relay hunger strike at Dharna Chowk in Vijayawada on Monday.
Speaking at the protest camp, committee executive member Udimudi Raju said the strength of ex-servicemen stood around one lakh in thirteen districts of the State. He sought Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to constitute a corporation for the ex-servicemen on the lines of Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana to provide employment under contract and outsourcing basis to safeguard the government properties.
Raju further said that the government recently started a recruitment drive to fill 1,27,000 jobs for village secretariat, of which 2,540 posts were reserved for the ex-servicemen. However, there was no mention of the minimum qualifying marks for the ex-servicemen in the released notification.
With this, only 215 posts out of the 2,540 were filled and majority of the ex-servicemen who appeared for the exams were considered on par with the open category. Necessary measures should have been taken by the government in exempting them from qualifying marks following the GO MS No. 57 Home department (General) as dated on January 13, 2001, he said.
“As per the GO No. 67 issued by the Department of Education (dated October 26,2018) and in police recruitment, ex-servicemen were given qualifying marks on par with the SC/ST. In this regard, there is an urgent need for the APPSC to replicate the same and recruit ex-servicemen for village secretariat posts,” said K Kumar, another executive committee member. He also urged the government to provide 10 per cent quota from Group-I to Group-IV posts on the lines of other States and provide exemption in stamp duty and vehicle registration.
The other demands of the committee include housing facility for the ex-servicemen in 175 square yards as per GO MS No 1241 (Revenue department dated on October 27, 2008), white ration card, establishment of defence training centres in every district headquarter through ex-servicemen corporation and others.