Streets no place to decide jobs: LSP
The Lok Satta Party on Friday took serious exception to the call for bandhs in Telangana and Andhra on the issue of the State Public Service Commission holding preliminary examinations for recruitment to Group I services on September 5.
“It is an issue that cannot and should not be decided on the streets,” Lok Satta Party spokespersons Katari Srinivasa Rao and P Bhaskara Rao told media persons. Such obstructionist forms of agitation will merely accentuate the trend among industrialists to flee the State. The State’s rate of growth has already slumped below even the national average, not to talk of certain advanced States.
On the demand from certain sections for reservation of 42 percent of Group I posts for people from the Telangana region, the Lok Satta leaders said they could not be faulted for voicing the demand but they should realize that they should achieve their objective through constitutional means. The Constitution guarantees equality before law and equality of opportunity to everyone and expressly prohibits discrimination based on caste, race, religion, language, gender, place of birth and residence. At the same time, it provides for making laws prescribing requirements of residence for public employment.
Considering the special circumstances prevailing in Andhra Pradesh, Article 371(D) of the Constitution prescribes district as a unit for recruitment to posts below the first gazetted level, the zone as a unit for the first gazetted level posts and the State as a unit for the second gazetted level posts. The State is the unit for recruitment to Group I posts for which examinations are scheduled for September 5.
The Constitution provided for the constitution of State public Service Commissions and gave them independence and protection to ensure they functioned objectively and impartially.
The demand for regional reservations in State level posts should be accomplished through Constitutional means and not by enforcing general shutdowns, said the Lok Satta leaders.