HYDERABAD: Minutes after his meeting with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy at Secretariat, Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) chairman B Janardhan Reddy submitted his resignation on Monday. His resignation was accepted immediately.
Janardhan Reddy attended a meeting with the Chief Minister at the Secretariat. The Chief Minister reportedly enquired about the paper leak cases. After the meeting, Janardhan Reddy sent his resignation letter to Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan, who accepted it and sent the same to Chief Secretary A Santhi Kumari.
Janardhan Reddy, a former IAS officer, was appointed the TSPSC chairman on May 21, 2021.
It may be recalled that the TSPSC question papers relating to Assistant Engineer (AE), Group-I Preliminary and DAO exams were leaked in March this year. Later, the case was transferred to special investigation team (SIT). The police arrested close to 100 accused in the case and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) too investigated the case. The TSPSC paper leak case rocked the state and it also became an important factor that worked against the BRS in the recent Assembly elections. Following the paper leak, the TSPSC cancelled the Group-1 Preliminary examination and other tests.
Several officials of the TSPSC including a section officer were suspended. When 2.87 lakh candidates appeared for the Group-1 Preliminary examination, which was conducted in October 2022 for 503 posts, around 121 scored more than 100 marks. Subsequently, the examination was cancelled.
Later, the examination was conducted in June 2023. However, some candidates raised doubts over the conduct of the examination including not taking the biometric tests. Then, the preliminary examination was cancelled for the second time. With this, lakhs of youths took to the streets demanding scrapping of the TSPSC Board.
While the Congress alleged that the BRS government utterly failed in conducting the examinations in transparent manner, BRS working president and former IT minister KT Rama Rao assured during electioneering that they would revamp the TSPSC, if BRS was voted to power. With the resignation of the chairman, the sources said, the remaining members too would submit their resignations soon.