The test for recruitment of police sub-inspectors will be held as scheduled on August 13 and14 whether or not clause (f) of Para 14 of the Presidential Order, 1975, to make Hyderabad a non-free zone, is deleted by then, according to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy.
His determination to go ahead with the examinations amid threats by political leaders and students from Telangana to disrupt it, is based on two key factors. Firstly, even if the clause is deleted by the President, it will have no bearing on the present round of recruitment as it is based on a 2008 notification.
“The President’s decision can only have prospective but not retrospective effect on the test in which 18,000 candidates are appearing,” the Chief Minister said in an interview to The Hindu here on Wednesday.
More importantly, the proposed test for recruiting 1,293 SIs will have no impact on the recruitment in Hyderabad since the A.P. State-Level Police Recruitment Board has not notified any vacancies here. Incidentally, the highest number of 402 vacancies have been notified in Zone-VI comprising six Telangana districts, including Hyderabad.
At the same time, Mr. Reddy was equally emphatic in his view that clause (f) of Para 14 must ultimately be deleted to see that Hyderabad was treated as a non-free zone and locals alone were eligible for SI jobs.
Recalling his efforts with the Home and Law Ministries for deletion of the controversial clause, he said he was instrumental in getting a joint meeting convened in New Delhi for the purpose.
The Solicitor General had cautioned that Presidential assent for deletion could be challenged in a court of law but he (Mr. Reddy) had insisted that this should not deter the Centre from removing the clause.
The Chief Minister had earlier in the day made these points clear to Deputy Chief Minister C. Damodar Rajanarasimha and two city Ministers Danam Nagender and M. Mukesh Goud when they called on him to seek postponement of the test till the controversial clause was deleted.
On why he felt that there was no need for the Legislative Assembly to pass a resolution afresh for deleting the clause, Mr. Reddy felt that the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) at its meeting on July 6 could have feared a backlash from Seemandhra leaders in the wake of the resignations by 101 MLAs from Telangana on July 4. But these fears were not well-founded, he said.
