Contractual crisis for students in Telangana
Students wary, say contract employees may take their jobs
Hyderabad: The continual stress of the Telangana government on regularising contract employees has upset student associations, as they fear that their employment opportunities will be reduced.
Since the formation of the new state, students have been waiting for job notifications from the state government for about 1 lakh positions in various departments as had been promised numerous times by Chief Minister Mr K. Chandrashekar Rao.
But they are now getting frustrated with the CM stressing on regularisation of contract employees in recent public meetings.
M. Krishank, spokesperson of the Osmania University Joint Action Committee, said, “The chief minister has time and again said that contract employees will be regularized. This will affect the number of fresh openings in the government. Another issue is that there has been no clarity on the total number of contract employees that the government plans to regularise. There has also been no clarity on what parameters will the regularization process be conducted as there are people who have recently started working and those who have been working on contract since more than two decades.”
Students have held agitations since the formation of the new state last year over the government not releasing job notifications. One such agitation conducted a few weeks back by the Telangana Nirudyoga Vidyarthi JAC in OU turned violent after students resorted to stone pelting.
Mr Kalyan, chairman of the Vidyarthi JAC said, “Students are not against regularisation of grade IV employees but there are many contract employees in higher positions for which educated youth can apply through competitive exams and get jobs on merit. There are about 5,000 teaching positions in government schools filled on contract basis for which youths with B.Ed. degrees are waiting to apply. Also, while employing contract staff, reservation rules were not followed. Many people who are relatives of politicians or have the right connections and references were employed. How can they be regularized?”