Over 700 aspirants of the Telangana Public Service Commission (TSPSC) Group-1 exams, leading a rally from Ashok Nagar Circle to the Hyderabad Secretariat, were detained in several police stations on Saturday, October 19. The aspirants have been protesting for the past three days, demanding among other things, the postponement of the exam.
The Group-1 exams, meant to select 563 candidates for public service, have been scheduled for October 21 by the Congress-led state government, which aspirants argue isn't sufficient time to prepare. The protest blew up on Wednesday, October 16, after the Telangana High Court ruled that the state government is well within their right to conduct the exam on the scheduled time.
Several protestors told TNM that they have lost faith in the judiciary and alleged that the “judicial order resembles the TSPSC’s counter in the High Court.”
The protesters, in a letter to the Telangana Chief Secretary, also criticised the Government Order (G.O. 29), issued on February 8 this year. Aspiring candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Class communities said that the order violates the reservation policy and restricts their entry to the Telangana Public Service Commission. They further said that the earlier norms under G.O 55, which allowed many candidates to qualify for the exam, are now rendered inapplicable owing to the new GO.
Further, they slammed the TSPSC’s decision to render the Telugu Akademi books, which students use to prepare for these exams, as invalid 10 days before the exam.
“There is a malicious propoganda by the Telangana government that the students who are protesting haven't prepared well hence they are making a case for postponement. That's not the case,” a protestor told TNM on the condition of anonymity.
“The Telugu Akademi has released books titled Poti Parikshala Pratyekam (Competitive Exam Special) which all aspirants use for study. In the preliminary exams results which was a message, we told the High Court that we referred to the Telugu Akademi books which give the same answer. The TSPSC told the court that these books aren't reference books and instead they quoted remote books read by UPSC optional people. They aren't even available in Telugu,” the protestor added, explaining how the books mentioned by TSPSC were elite and as such, exclusionary.
Another protestor told us that initially, for two days, protesters were just detained. “Yesterday (Friday) things changed for the worse. Students were beaten and detained to Gandhi Nagar, Begum Bazaar and other area stations. Today the protest gathered momentum once Bandi Sanjay turned up. Once he was detained, things got worse and the protest ended by 4:15 pm. Otherwise it would have continued till 8 pm,” he said.
When questioned about the violence against protestors, Telangana Director General of Police (DGP) Jitender said, "There is a court order and we are implementing it. Instead of appealing to a higher court, how can they inconvenience the general people with protests?"
The clampdown notwithstanding, protesting students have demanded that the exam be rescheduled, the state offer clarity on study material, and the state government reconsider the implementation of G.O 29. While the 2022 notification specified that candidates for the mains exam would be selected as per G.O. 55, which applied the rule of reservation in a 1:50 ratio to the number of posts, the 2024 notification amended G.O. 55 and introduced it as G.O. 29. Under G.O. 29, the rule of reservation for the selection of candidates in the preliminary exam was removed, the aggrieved aspirants say.
For instance, even if an SC or ST candidate secured high marks and was eligible to compete in the open category, they were still counted under the reserved category, which is a violation of the reservation policy. Such a process would restrict the entry of aspirants from the reserved communities, they say.
According to the aspirants, as G.O. 29 was applied for selecting candidates for the mains exam in the 1:50 ratio, many reserved candidates were denied their right to write the mains exam.
Also Read: Explained: Why Group-I aspirants are protesting against Telangana government
Several opposition leaders have extended their support to the candidates. Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao (KTR) slammed G.O 29 and said that the way the state government has treated job aspirants is shameful.
“At the very least, they should have held talks with the protestors but they didn't,” he said.
Union minister of state for home affairs Bandi Sanjay also told the media that it was important that the state government “rectify mistakes made during the Group-1 exam" and stated that he would continue to challenge the state government until justice is served for the candidates.