Candidates, recruitment agencies seek clarity on ST quota hike GO

HYDERABAD: The order that the government issued to  enhance reservations for Scheduled Tribes (ST) communities from the existing six per cent to 10 per cent has created confusion not only among officials but also candidates applying for recruitment exams.

The GO has no clarity on whether the enhanced quota will be applicable to the recently issued job notifications or those slated to be issued soon.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao announced increase in ST community reservations and the government issued GO No.33 at midnight of September 30.

The GO issued by Christina Z. Chongthu, secretary, tribal welfare department, stated, "These orders shall come into force with immediate effect."

This created confusion among officials and job aspirants as to whether these orders will be applicable from September 30 or prior to that. It should be noted that a majority of job notifications were issued in the last three months and only few are left to be issued.

Of the 80,000 vacancies, the state government already released notifications for 53,000 vacancies in the last three months while notifications for filling up 17,000 vacancies are expected to be released later this month.

If the new ST quota GO is applicable to all the job notifications issued since July, ST candidates will get 8,000 jobs. If not, they would get just 1,700 jobs as only 17,000 total vacancies are left to be notified.

Various recruitment agencies such as TSPSC, TSLPRB and Telangana Universities Common Recruitment Board are awaiting clarity from the government.

ST candidates are urging the government to issue a clarification on this issue immediately. They are urging the government to implement the quota hike GO to all job notifications. If not, the very purpose of this GO will be defeated as majority of the job notifications were already issued and they are left with fewer vacancies at this stage, they point out.