HYDERABAD: The unemployed can look forward to the much-awaited good news on June 2, the first anniversary of the formation of Telangana State.
If everything goes well, a formal announcement on recruitment for government posts could be expected from Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao in his State formation day address — a move that could check the simmering discontent among the educated unemployed youth.
Though there is no clarity yet on the number of jobs that could be announced in the first phase, a few thousands of vacancies are likely to be filled. This includes engineers and posts under Group-II while recruitment of teachers may not be taken up until rationalisation of schools is completed.
The panchayat raj department of which KT Rama Rao is the minister has already indented to the Telangana Public Service Commission (TPSC) for filling 6,000 posts of civil engineers. Other departments like municipal administration, roads and buildings and irrigation are expected to follow suit. Officials of the Telangana government are working overtime to iron out a few issues that have been delaying issuance of recruitment notification by the TPSC. One of them pertains to zonal reservation prescribed under Article 371-D.
According to this proviso, 30 per cent of the jobs have to be reserved for non-locals. Of the total six zones in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, four are in Andhra-Rayalaseema and two in Telangana.
The Andhra government has already resolved this issue by applying the clause only to the 13 districts in the State — in other words, if recruitment is taken up in one of the zones in Andhra, applicants from the other three zones will be treated as non-locals. It is more than likely that the Telangana government may also adopt a similar procedure in respect of the two zones in the newly-created State.
There is then the question of age relaxation which happens to be one of the poll promises of the TRS. While the Andhra government has already relaxed the age limit to 40, the Telangana government is yet to issue a GO enhancing the age limit from 34.
The third aspect pertains to the roster on which two arguments are being putforth: a) the existing strength should be taken into account and the roster done as a continuation; and b) since this is a new State, a fresh roster has to be taken up beginning from scratch.
According to officials, unless these key issues are resolved, it is not possible for the TPSC to issue job recruitment notifications. While it may not be possible for the TPSC to come out with the notification on June 2, most in the State government feel there should at least be a symbolic/formal announcement by the Chief Minister in this regard, considering the historical significance of the occasion.