KCR tells party to canvass 18 lakh jobs he created

Hyderabad: The ruling TRS has decided to take up an aggressive campaign on the jobs created during its reign to counter the opposition parties in the upcoming graduate MLC elections for two seats, according to TRS chief and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Monday.

"The ‘18 lakh jobs created in the last six years’ will be the main poll plank of TRS to attract and seek votes of graduates and youth in these elections", Rao said.

The party supremo instructed his two MLC candidates - Surabhi Vani Devi and P. Rajeshwar Reddy - to counter the criticism of the opposition parties that the TRS government had failed to create many jobs for youth in the last six years, by aggressively bringing this out during their poll campaigns.

According to sources, CM Chandrashekar Rao gave a detailed account of TRS government’s achievements in providing jobs to youth. As per the CM’s presentation, 1.31 lakh jobs were provided in the government sector, 2.11 lakh jobs created in the IT/ ITES sector and 14.59 lakh jobs were provided in the private sector, due to the faster approvals given to industries under the TS-iPASS since he assumed office more than six-and-a-half years ago.

The TRS government has decided to distribute pamphlets, put up banners and other harness public display mechanisms. Besides the two candidates, senior party leaders and cadre were told to strive hard to highlight the 18 lakh jobs provided by the TRS government. They were asked to distribute these pamphlets, particularly among graduate voters, in educational institutions and hold debates on the issue at several platforms.

In the ongoing MLC elections, all the Opposition parties are targeting TRS on the issue of lack of jobs to students and youth in Telangana.

Opposition parties argue that the ‘tagline’ of Telangana statehood agitation was “jobs, funds and water”. Students and youth had sacrificed their lives and careers to fight for Telangana statehood, with a hope of getting jobs, once the statehood was achieved.

They argue that the TRS government had failed to fulfil their aspirations by failing miserably in filling lakhs of vacancies in government departments. However, the TRS government rubbishes these claims and has gathered data from all sectors to prove how many jobs they had provided so far.

The data gathered, say TRS sources, claims that 1.31 lakh vacancies were filled in various government departments since 2014, of which 32,000 vacancies were filled in police department, 35,000 were recruited through TSPSC, 9,350 panchayat secretary posts and 350 jobs in universities, 5,500 driver and conductor posts in TSRTC, besides 9,000 posts in the electricity department.

In addition to these, services of 24,000 artisan posts in the electricity department had also been regularised by the TRS government.

Mr Rao asked party leaders and cadre to extensively campaign about the state government’s readiness to issue job notifications to fill over 50,000 posts in February but due to the poll code, it could not be done. This will be issued immediately after poll code ends in March, he advised them.

A senior leader told Deccan Chronicle, “the TRS government has not only filled vacancies in the public sector but has also created lakhs of jobs in the private sector by attracting investments through its industry-friendly policies. About 2.11 youth got jobs in the IT sector. In all, 14,000 new industries came to the state through TS-iPASS, which created 14.59 lakh jobs in the private sector, a major chunk of which was bagged by Telangana locals. We challenge the opposition parties to prove this wrong. We will not seek votes if they prove us wrong.”