Congress neglecting unemployed youth after coming to power, alleges Harish Rao

He said it was the Congress leaders, who had demanded the two-month gap when in Opposition but appeared to have forgotten it after coming to power.

Senior leader of the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and former minister T. Harish Rao has criticised the Congress government in Telangana for not heeding repeated pleas of the unemployed youth who are appearing for the Group exams of Public Service Commission and others such as District Selection Committee (DSC) exam, and seeking at least two months gap between the competitive tests.

He said it was the Congress leaders, when in Opposition, who had demanded the two-month gap but appeared to have forgotten it after coming to power as they were unmoved by repeated requests of the youth appearing for those recruitment tests. Addressing a press conference here on Monday along with party leaders S. Madhusudana Chary and Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy, Mr.Harish Rao said ministers were not even giving an audience to the unemployed youth in distress.

The BRS leader stated that the unemployed youth had also been making repeated requests to increase the eligibility of candidates who clear the Group-I prelims to Mains to 100 for every post available so that they get a fair chance. He reminded the ruling party that none other than current Deputy Chief Minister M. Bhatti Vikramarka, in his capacity as the Congress Legislature Party leader then, had requested the government in the past to increase the ratio to 1:100 from 1:50.

However, the Telangana State Public Service Commission chairman and the government functionaries were passing the buck to each other when approached on the issue by the unemployed youth. A woman candidate had even touched the feet of State Planning Board vice-chairman G. Chinna Reddy during the recent Prajavani with the same plea but the government has remained unmoved, Mr. Harish Rao stated.

Further, the BRS leader requested the government add 2,000 posts to Group-II services and another 3,000 to Group-III services and conduct the recruitment tests only after that. He sought to know what had happened to the job calendar promise of the Congress to fill 2 lakh vacancies in the first year as six months of its rule had already passed.

During the run-up to Assembly elections last December, the Congress had also promised a mega DSC for recruitment of 25,000 teacher posts but after coming to power, it had limited the number to 11,000, Mr.Harish Rao stated.

On Aasara pensions, he said the beneficiaries had not received the amount for April and May yet even at the old rate of ₹2,000, though the Congress had promised to enhance it to ₹4,000 immediately after coming to power. He also pointed out that Accredited Social Health Activists, Auxiliary Nursing Midwives (ANMs), second ANMs, anganwadi teachers, helpers and gram panchayat workers had not been paid their salaries for the past two to five months.