Sai Krishna Kota, an associate professor who doubles up as a training and placement officer at the Gudlavalleru Engineering College, is a worried man, as recruiters have been telling him that they are wary of hiring graduates from Andhra Pradesh.
He had indeed noticed that there was a drop of 16 to 20 per cent in the placement of graduates since August last year.
“When I probed deeper, I discovered that small and medium enterprises had stopped coming to placement events. A little prodding from me revealed that oral instructions had gone out from the Telangana government to recruiters to hire only ‘local’ students. That explained the drop in recruitment of our students,” says Mr. Kota.
That was the trigger for his decision to sit on a one-day hunger strike to bring attention to the problem. He now plans to sit on a protest fast from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday opposite Sarada College on BRTS Road at Satyanarayanapuram.
Mr. Kota says setting up “our own industry is the only way to address this problem”. To attract industrialists to set up their units in AP, the government will have to extend subsidies to them, and that is not possible unless the State gets special status.
“The solution lies in the hands of the Centre, which has been dilly-dallying on the issue. Students will be the main sufferers if our pleas are not heard. If we don’t act now, the problem will intensify and carry into the next generation,” he says and warns that “educated unemployment is more dangerous than uneducated unemployment”.
Mr. Kota is also upset that political parties, employees and students have stopped raising their voices post-bifurcation. “The situation is alarming. We need to address the issue collectively,” he emphasises.
Several groups, including the Andhra Pradesh Training & Placement Officers’ Collegium, the city unit of AP NGOs, and AP Journalists Forum have announced support to his protest.
I discovered small and medium enterprises had stopped coming to placement events. A little prodding revealed oral instructions had gone out from the TS government to recruiters to hire only ‘local’ students.
Sai Krishna Kota
