Telangana Finance Minister T Harish Rao today said that the TRS-led state government was committed to filling
50,000 vacant government job posts soon.
(The promise was initially made by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao in December, last year.)
Speaking at the Assembly during today's Budget session, the minister said, "CM K Chandrashekar Rao has issued fresh instructions in this regard and the concerned officials have already initiated the process for the recruitments."
He also spoke about the
recently released PRC, which will push up the retirement age of government employees in the state to 61 years, and allayed the fears of the youth about the possible adverse effects of the increase on the filling of the vacant job posts.
"Before increasing the retirement age, the government discussed the matter at length with the employees’ associations and their leaders. While the stipulated age is 60 years in the legal field in some states, for other government employees it is between 60 and 62. In Telangana, our intention is to make use of the skills and experience of the senior officials and staff by increasing their retirement age limit. In order to do this, we put the proposal before the Pay Revision Commission, and got it approved. The promises in the TRS manifesto will all be fulfilled after the implementation of this. However, the implementation will not have any impact on the filling of the promised 50,000 vacancies, or on the filling of other vacancies in the future. We have already filled 1.32 lakh vacancies, and remain committed to both employment generation and the filling of vacancies whenever they are created. Therefore, the new retirement age should not trigger any panic in the youth or the educated people of the state. Rest assured that a notification for the filling of the aforementioned 50,000 jobs will be released soon," Rao said.
Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy also made an announcement pertaining to employment. She told the state's Assembly that the government would soon fill the vacant teaching posts in all the universities of Telangana. She added that a decision would be taken on the recommendations made by the Tirupathi Rao Committee.
Further, Reddy also revealed the plans of the state government to improve facilities and infrastructure in the government schools.
"We have allocated Rs 4,000 crore to improve the state's government schools. Our commitment to education is visible through the fact that we have been holding online digital classes throughout the pandemic to ensure that students do not face any problems in covering their syllabi," she said.
Elaborating on the measures taken to strengthen virtual learning in the state, the minister added, "Learners have been able to use their TV and phones to access the virtual lessons. The government’s T-Sat app has been downloaded by 12 lakh students. A total of 85% of students have been able to avail themselves of the online class services through it. We have also set up a career guidance portal to enable students to chart their paths after their school education is complete. The portal currently has the details of 21,000 colleges, 2.09 lakh courses, 11,050 entrance tests, 12,000 scholarships, and 555 future opportunities."
The announcements regarding the filling of these vacancies are of great importance since the delay in the recruitments had given the Opposition the chance to fault the TRS regime for its "lack of commitment" to the unemployed youth and the higher educational institutions of the state.