Seven months after taking over, the Congress government is facing its first big agitation by unemployed youths. The BRS, which is rapidly losing ground because of defections by its MLAs, has also mounted a heavy attack on Chief Minister Revanth Reddy for failing to fulfil the promises made in the party’s manifesto over resolving unemployment.
On Saturday night, hundreds of job aspirants from Ashoknagar and Chikkadpally areas came out in protest, demanding the postponement of the District Selection Committee (DSC) for teachers’ recruitment and a deferred timetable for the Group II and Group III exams of the Public Service Commission. They held placards and raised slogans against the Chief Minister and his party. The protests were triggered by the comments made by Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, who had cited observations from two or three individuals that those who protested were not even appearing for the examinations. He also pointed out that the government had neither changed the syllabus nor the way the exam was being conducted.
Even after the late-night protests, the government has stuck to its decision of not postponing the exams. In an attempt to pacify the section of students demanding the postponement of the teachers’ recruitment examination, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said, “There will be another DSC notification released soon with another 5,000-6,000 vacancies.”
However, the BRS has taken up the cudgels on behalf of the protesting students. Accusing Reddy and his government of cheating the unemployed youths, BRS working president KT Rama Rao lashed out at Rahul Gandhi and the Chief Minister, who had addressed the unemployed youths before the Assembly elections last year. Taking to social media platform ‘X’ he wrote, “Two politically unemployed fraudsters of Congress provoked the Telangana youth against the KCR government by promising them the moon. Thanks to the youth, now those two have cushy jobs. In the last 7 months, neither was a single job notification given nor a single job delivered from the 2 lakh jobs promised in the first year of government formation.”
Another BRS leader T Harish Rao also questioned the move of the Congress government to deal with the protests with a heavy hand. He also wondered why the party that had promised jobs to the youth before elections failed to uphold their promises after coming to power. “I vehemently oppose your policy of silencing them with fences and restrictions. Candidates should be invited to discussions in a constructive manner, with regard for the lives and future of the unemployed. I urge you to understand their pain and demands and to address them promptly,” said Harish Rao in his open letter to the Chief Minister. However, according to the Congress, a small section of the job aspirants was agitating since there are others who will lose their eligibility because of age if the DSC was pushed further. Moreover, if the state government deviates from the notification of Group I Prelims under PSC the court might strike down the examination.