Massive stir over jobs to paralyse Telangana

HYDERABAD: A massive campaign over jobs is likely to soon paralyse Telanagana yet again, as a new student front is gearing up against the government's reluctance to fill over one lakh vacancies.
"Various students' Joint Action Committees (JACs) that were functioning independently during the statehood movement are coming under one umbrella, called All University Students' JAC, and together they will launch a huge agitation across the state," said former Osmania University student functionary K Manavata Roy, now state president of Telanagana Students-Unemployed JAC.
All protesting student groups have already formed a separate 'Unemployed JAC'. "Now these two JACs will come together to jointly launch a concerted agitation across the state," Roy said.
With the backing of the M Kodandaram-led Telangana Political Joint Action Committee (TJAC), lakhs of unemployed youths and students are hoping their mass movement would shake the establishment.
"Our demand is the immediate issuing of notification for the recruitments. No excuses, no reasons for the delay will be accepted," said Kodandaram, chairman of TJAC, who spearheaded the statehood movement for years.
Thousands of members of the new Telangana Students-Unemployed JAC have already launched a march from Kakathiya University in Warnagal to Osmania University in Hyderabad.
According to the general administration department, there are over 1,07,744 vacancies across departments, with the education department alone needing 24,868 employees. While the police department has 15,339 vacancies, the family welfare and higher education departments have 11,837 and 10,592 vacancies respectively.
While over 10 lakh unemployed youths are aspiring for government jobs, their hopes were dashed after the TRS government decided to wait for the KC Kamalnathan Committee report before taking steps to fill up vacancies. The term of the Kamalnathan panel on distribution of the existing state cadre employees between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh has been extended from March 31 to October 15.
"We fought for the statehood to get justice mainly in terms of jobs and education opportunity. It is ironic that the TRS, which was at the forefront of the statehood movement, is reluctant to give jobs to Telangana youth after coming to power," said Punna Kailash Netha, chairman of Telangana Students' JAC. He said various rallies, including a 'rath yatra' in April and a massive 'Chalo Hyderabad' rally in May, had been planned. "While over three lakh unemployed youths are going to take part in Chalo Hyderabad, the general public and TJAC activists will also participate in the campaign," said Netha.
For its part, the state government is saying it will wait for the distribution of employees to get clarity over exact vacancies in each department. "The government is ready to address the issue of the unemployment. But the recruitment process cannot be taken up immediately," said V Srinivas Goud, TRS MLA and parliamentary secretary in-charge of employees' affairs.
On Saturday chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao had said: "Over a lakh vacancies would be filled in the next two years."
Clarifying that the government was not considering filling the vacancies now, Telangana Public Service Commission chairman Ganta Chakrapani told TOI: "There is no indent from the government for the recruitments."
Debunking the government's stand that it would wait for the Kamalnathan Committee report, Kodandaram said it was a just a delaying tactic. "The Kamalnathan Committee is just looking into the distribution of state cadre employees. It is nothing to do with zonal, multi-zonal and district cadre posts. The government must fill at least vacancies, which are over 80,000," Kodandaram said. He said even the state cadre vacancies could be filled and they were not linked to the distribution of existing employees.