Demanding the Government to appoint a horticulture officer (HO) and three horticulture extension officers (HEOs) for each mandal in Telangana State, students of the Sri Konda Laxman Telangana State Horticultural University have been agitating for the last 14 days.
Students allege that the Government was ignoring their protests even as it claimed that horticulture would be given a boost in the new State.
One of the agitating students Nagarjun said when the Government can appoint agriculture officers (AOs) and agriculture extension officers (AEOs) and similarly veterinary assistants in the Government why is it ignoring the horticulture students.
Mess facility
The students, who now allege that their hostel mess facility has been closed for the last few days due to their protest, are also questioning why a separate university was created when the Government had no intention of recruiting them. “Realising employment in the Government sector, several students chose Horticulture courses. More so in the backdrop of the creation of a separate university. With the formation of Telangana our hopes increased,” said another student. The agitating students also revealed that those now working at the ground level in the Horticulture sector were not professionally qualified. They don’t have any knowledge of the sector and will do more harm than good, the students argue and want the Government to shift them to other departments and replace them with professionally qualified graduates.
They said that with recent notifications Govt recruited 120 AOs and 1,311 AEOs for agriculture sector and 150 veterinary assistants.
