The Opposition parties on Tuesday demanded that the State Government announce a calendar for filling vacancies of government posts and also issue a white paper on the unemployment issue.
Not convinced by the clarifications given by the government and Finance Minister Etala Rajender’s reply to short discussion on ‘filling up government vacant posts and unemployment issue’ in the Assembly, members of Congress, BJP, TDP and CPI (M) also staged a walk-out, in symbolic protest as they resumed seats when the bills were taken up.
Initiating the discussion, K. Laxman (BJP) sought to know how the government was planning to fill nearly two-lakh vacant posts, including over 50,000 vacancies caused by retirement of employees during the last three-and-a-half years, in less than 18 months time remaining in the TRS government term when it could fill only about 16,000 vacancies so far.
ADVERTISEMENT
He alleged that lack of government sincerity was so evident that it had not allowed even filling the vacancies in Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC), which was supposed to take up recruitment process for vacancies in most of other departments and due to vacancies in its information technology wing the agency had to outsource its work to Centre for Good Governance.
Restless youth
Stating that youth were getting restless due to delay in filling government posts, Akbaruddin Owaisi (AIMIM) said expectations among the unemployed youth were sky-high on the first government in Telangana and it should make all efforts to live up to it.
ADVERTISEMENT
He observed that once the government job was secured the person would not take it as seriously as it should be.
He also suggested the government to revise the cadre strength in various departments fixed in 1971.
Asking the government to give unemployment allowance to as it was done in the US and Canada, T. Rammohan Reddy (Congress) said such a move could increase the responsibility of governments in filling vacant posts with some urgency. R. Krishnaiah (TDP), S. Rajaiah (CPI-M) and G. Kishore Kumar (TRS) also spoke on the issue.
In his reply, the Finance Minister said that of the 1,08,132 vacancies, the government had sanctioned 63,153 posts already and 27,874 of them had been filled so far.
He noted that those creating obstacles in the construction of irrigation projects were also obstructing recruitment process.