Poll fever grips Congress; Uttam promises 2 lakh new jobs

 ​Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president N Uttam Kumar Reddy promised to fill one lakh vacancies in the public sector and create another one lakh jobs in the private sector if voted to power in the next elections.

He said the Congress government would create one lakh jobs in private sector through self-employment schemes within one year of coming to power. He also promised to conduct a mega DSC to fill over 20,000 teachers' posts. Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan here on Monday, Uttam Kumar Reddy said Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had brought huge disappointment among jobless youth by not filling up over two lakh vacancies in the last four-and-a-half years. 

However, he said Chandrashekar Rao had ensured top jobs for all his family members. Of nearly 2.5 lakh vacancies, the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government has filled only 11,000 posts. He said nearly 300 posts were vacant in Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) itself. He said not a single post of teacher had been filled. Similarly, the backlog vacancies of SCs and STs had not been filled.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said when the Congress announced that it would provide Rs 3,000 monthly allowance to 10 lakh jobless youth, the Chief Minister raised questions and expressed doubts over its implementation. Now, with elections being round the corner, Chandrashekar Rao himself had announced that his government would consider giving allowance to jobless youth. “Telangana became a reality due to the struggle and sacrifices made by students and youth. However, the TRS government completely neglected the jobless youth and took no measure to fill even existing vacancies. Now, with just a few months before the elections, Chandrashekar Rao is talking about jobless youth,” he said.

Uttam Kumar Reddy pointed out that in the Governor's address to the State Legislature in both 2014 and 2015, the State government had promised to create 52 lakh direct and indirect jobs through Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR). Stating that the ITIR was sanctioned by previous Congress-led UPA government, he said the present TRS government failed to pursue the project with the BJP government at the Centre and it remained a non-starter. 

Further, he said projects like Railway Coach Factory at Kazipet and Steel Plant at Bayyaram, which were promised in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, remained non-starters. These projects could have created lakhs of new jobs for the local youth, he said.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said while Chandrashekar Rao had been making claims of increase in State's revenues, his government was not extending the benefits to jobless youth. Instead, the TRS government was exploring means of giving more money to contractors, he added.