Sravan today demanded that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao increase the upper age limit for government job applicants to 44 years.
AICC national Spokesperson Dasoju Sravan today demanded that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao increase the upper age limit for government job applicants in the state to 44 years.
In an open letter to the CM, Sravan said, "The upper age limit should be fixed at 44 years, as it was in the past, to give a far larger pool of unemployed aspirants the chance to apply for government jobs. The existing 34-year age limit has barred millions of beleaguered unemployed and qualified youth in the state from applying for new jobs."
Urging KCR to treat the problem of rising unemployment in Telangana as a "social emergency", he appealed to the latter to constitute a special task force to address the issue on a war footing to ensure that the youth were not forced to take any desperate measures under the pressure of being unemployed.
In his letter, the Congress leader also requested the other parties in the state to set aside their political ideologies and differences to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the matter of unemployment, and to formulate solutions to the problem.
"As you may be aware, the recent job notification no 3/2021 issued on 31 March 2021 by the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) reveals that the upper age limit of eligible candidates is now 34 years, thereby barring lakhs of unemployed youth who had aggressively participated in the Telangana movement since 2009 from applying for stable jobs. The unemployment problem in Telangana and also the prevailing conditions of the pandemic has crippled normal life, but the problems have hit the unemployed youth especially hard. In a context where most of them are still eagerly awaiting their turn to apply for government jobs for better livelihoods, reducing the upper age limit to 34 is a brutal and unjust move," he explained.
"A majority of the unemployed youth are in deep distress, unable to face their parents, and family and friends, unable to get married and settle down. They are leading miserable lives. Some of them are even being driven to suicide due to this situation. It is unfortunate that at least 50 youngsters have committed suicide in the last seven years - in fact, seven of them died in the last one week. This troubling situation reflects their deep agony and dejected condition," Sravan stated.
He then pointed out that the Telangana government had relaxed the upper age ceiling by 10 years through various GOs between 2015 and 2017 which had made it possible for a large number of candidates to apply for government posts. Calling these earlier decisions "rational acts", he argued that they had benefited many candidates in the past, and urged the government to issue fresh recruitment notifications at the earliest after setting the upper age limit to 44 years once again.
"We must always be cognisant of the contributions made by the students and the unemployed graduates to the separate Telangana movement. It is what brought us freedom and helped us realise our dream of a separate state. Now that we have a new state, we simply cannot ignore the central agenda of the statehood movement - equal share of water, funds and jobs for all," the AICC spokesperson asserted.
Lambasting the TRS regime for not taking concrete measures to battle joblessness, he said, "It is sad that the government of Telangana has completely failed to promote self-employment and entrepreneurship. While lakhs of unemployed youth belonging to the BC, SC, ST and minority communities had applied for self-employment loans through their respective financial corporations, not even 2% of the funds allocated were finally released to the applicants. Hence, the youth who, with high hopes that the government would extend the financial support they needed to establish themselves through entrepreneurship and self-employment, were left in the lurch, utterly disappointed."
Sravan then reiterated his demand once again, and stated, "Therefore, I request you to kindly instruct the TSPSC to immediately recall its latest employment notification no.3/2021 and issue a revised one with the clear age relaxation of 44 years, replacing the existing 34-year ceiling. I also request you to make sure this decision is implemented across all the departments of the government and all its corporations, universities and affiliated bodies."