Hyderabad: The issue of regularisation of contract employees has snowballed into a major controversy. The Telangana Cabinet had recently approved a resolution to this effect. Now, however, questions are being raised asking if the move is even constitutional, as most of the employees had secured the jobs based on recommendations by political leaders. Moreover, no reservation or educational qualification rules were followed during the appointment process.
Nearly 70,000 contract employees are working in 90 departments, including in the Telangana Secretariat. The state government is planning to filter out at least 40,000 employees by bringing in nativity norms with a condition that only those employees, whose families were residents of Telangana prior to 1956, are eligible.
Initially, TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar too was against regularisation of contract staff. However, political compulsions during general elections forced him to announce that all contract employees will be regularised if the TRS came to power.
As a result, Mr Rao faced the wrath of Osmania University students during his election campaigning.
“The government should take precautions while regularising the contract staff. Many contract employees have been working for over 20 years with low salaries. Regularising such senior employees would not pose any problem. But many contract employees secured jobs during the last 5-10 years and there are complaints that the criterion for selection was political interference. Besides, there are complaints regarding violation of reservation rules as well. These follies have to be rectified. Or the entire process will land up in legal tangles,” said A. Padma Chary, Telangana Employees’ Association leader.
“Several students with higher educational qualifications have failed to secure government jobs via recruitment exams as most of the vacancies are filled by contract staff. Instead of recruiting permanent staff, the T-government is trying to regularise contract staff which deprives genuine and qualified students of government jobs,” said A. Kishore of OUJAC.
