Hyderabad: Although the Telangana Government has been announcing cash rewards for sportspersons from the state, the two per cent sports quota in government jobs is yet to be announced. The delay in the government orders is disappointing sportspersons who brought laurels and medals in national and international events and kept the nation’s spirits high.
During the rule of N. Kiran Kumar Reddy, the Youth Services department issued a government order (GOMS 74) that allowed a 2 per cent sports quota in undivided Andhra Pradesh.
The same has been adopted by the AP Government. The GOMS-74 was a revised GO for the earlier order released during the chiefministership of N. Chandrababu Naidu. Kiran Kumar Reddy’s government had included a few more categories in the list of sorts.
A condition therein was that the candidate appointed under sports quota must represent the department in which he worked for at least five years from the time of appointment, and the GO had given opportunities to sportspersons, based on the performance of individuals. The government considered participation at higher levels like national and international events, and winning of medals at state and lower levels.
As per the GOMS-74, the sportspersons would have opportunities in the posts of state government departments, educational institutes, local bodies including GHMC, municipalities, zilla parishads, mandal parishads and gram panchayats, corporations, boards, Grandhalaya Samsthas, market committees and other establishments that are funded or aided by the state government, where direct recruitment was one of the modes of appointment.
TSPSC chairman Ganta Chakrapani had earlier told this newspaper that the government had to issue orders on sports quota. “As per the directions of the government, we shall include reservations for sportspersons in notifications. But, the GO should be released by the general administration department (GAD) instead of the Youth Services and Sports as the matter is related to service,” he said.
Secretary to the tourism and youth services department, B. Venkatesam, said the government was studying the matter and would come up with a conclusion soon.
“Initially we faced a few impediments in releasing the GO. We studied orders issued by courts on the matter earlier. Recently, the TSPSC sent its opinion and the GAD will release the order this month,” he said.
National, state players need jobs
After bifurcation of AP, the Telangana State has put the GO under ‘deferred’ category and planned to release it through general administration department instead of the youth services and sports department.
The TSPSC and other agencies have issued several notifications for various posts including for assistant executive engineers, horticulture officers, agriculture officers, managers (engineering) for Hyderabad water works, town planning and building overseers in municipal planning subordinate service, assistants for finance and accounts in Hyderabad water works, Group II and other posts. The TSPSC has conducted examinations for various posts and results were released for a few notifications in which the selected candidates joined in their duties.
International Volleyball player and secretary to Telangana Volleyball Association C. Manoj Reddy said that they have already explained the matter to minister T. Padma Rao during a national volleyball tournament organised at Narsapur last year.
“International sports persons are having many chances in direct recruitments to the central government but the scope comes down in respect of national and state-level sportspersons. State governments would need to provide employment to them,” he said.
