The resignation of Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) Chairman B. Janardhan Reddy and five other members, and Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan yet to accept their resignations have cast a shadow on the conduct of the Group-II examinations that were to be conducted in the first week of January 2024.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy has called for a meeting with the TSPSC officials to discuss the issue and take a final call. A clear picture will emerge on the government’s stand – if it wants to take some more time or announce a date for the exams. What is holding the government back is the Governor’s final decision on resignations.
No movement
Sources said the State government is in constant touch with the Governor’s office on the acceptance of their resignations so that the new committee is entrusted with the responsibility of conducting the exams. As the officials who have resigned are not attending duties, there is no movement on the preparations and the key decisions.
Sources in the government said that the aspirants will not have faith in the existing TSPSC due to the series of question paper leaks this year that diluted the confidence in the system itself. “If we go ahead with the conduct of exams with the present team, there will be trust issues among the aspirants,” an official said.
The Congress party too, is of the opinion that it promised fool-proof conduct of exams and that can be done only with a new team that has to be constituted after the resignations of the present team are accepted by the Governor.
However, the Governor is firm. If the resignations are accepted, who will fix the accountability? Unless the investigations into the leaks come out with a logical conclusion, accepting the resignations will be unfair is the Governor’s view.
Fresh notification?
Sources revealed that Mr. Revanth Reddy understands the pain of the aspirants of Group-II that has already been postponed twice and candidates preparing for the exams for a long time spending money and time. “His idea is to give a fresh notification with increased posts once the new TSPSC team is formed as assured in the manifesto,” a source close to the Chief Minister said.
The government had also weighed the option of filling up the five vacancies in the TSPSC and going ahead with the conduct of exams. It backed off as some key decisions cannot be taken without the Chairman and the full-fledged team.
The Group-II notification was issued in December 2022 for filling up 783 posts in various departments. About 5.5 lakh candidates applied for the exam that was originally to be held in August this year. But the paper leakages of other exams the schedule got disrupted and they were postponed to be conducted in November this year. But due to pressure from the candidates who sought more preparation time the exams were postponed.
Then the election notification was issued hampering the conduct of exams with the police and other officials expressing their inability to be part of the process. Now the absence of the full-fledged team is causing further delay.
