Jagan accuses Andhra Govt of recruitment scam, demands CBI probe

YSRCP supremo YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday accused the Andhra Pradesh government of conducting a “fraudulent” teacher recruitment process for the DSC-2025 examination and said it lacked standard public accountability measures.

However, Kona Sashidar, Secretary of School Education, said no discrepancy occurred anywhere in DSC-2025 recruitment. Jagan’s allegations come in the wake of the Andhra Pradesh government recruiting nearly 16,000 Government teachers through the District Selection Committee (DSC) – 2025 examination last year.

“No merit list, no display, no marks, no ranks, no cut off. Only selected candidates were sent messages and only they got call letters,” he told reporters.

According to Reddy, any public or competitive examination will entail the notification of merit lists, but flagged its alleged absence with respect to DSC – 2025.

Though two different entities were supposed to be involved in the examination process - examination paper to be complied by the SCERT (State Council of Educational Research and Training) and the examination itself to be conducted by the DSC convenor – the opposition leader alleged that both these roles were entrusted to the same person, SCERT director.

Despite knowing that the work of uploading the question paper should not be entrusted to an outsourced employee, the YSRCP chief alleged that it was done by an outsourced employee.

“Surprisingly, an outsourced employee, Naveen Purama, secured the first rank in social studies in Krishna district,” said Jagan, adding that the same person also went on to bag the sixth rank under Trained Graduate Telugu category in Zone – 2 in the DSC examination.

“Same person being a part of conducting the examination and that same person securing top ranks…Isn’t this evidence of the biggest scam?” asked Jagan.

In spite of bagging top ranks, the former CM said Purama failed to get a job through DSC, prompting him to move the court.

Not only denying him a job, Jagan alleged that all data pertaining to Purama was deleted.

Further, the opposition party leader claimed that candidates in the selected list got call letters under 1:1 ratio, which means that only one candidate was called for one job, implying that “each of those candidates were selected.”

“Even after certification verification, the jobs were not given. What does it mean? For whom were they dropped? Not only getting a job, even in the rejected list their names were not there. Is this not a scam?” he asked.

Referring to sports quota selections in DSC – 2025, Jagan alleged that Naidu made a mockery out of this category, claiming the government had issued orders obviating the need to write the qualifying examination.

Instead of winning medals and writing the qualifying examination, he said the TDP-led coalition government made mere participation in inter-college, inter-university and inter-district sports competitions as a qualifying ground.

“Just participation is enough for the job. The participation certificates were given by TDP MLAs and MPs certifying that they participated in college, university and district level competitions and secured the jobs,” he alleged.

Claiming that 270 persons got jobs under sports quota without writing the qualifying exam, he contrasted their fate with the alleged plight of one Durgaiah from Chintur, who bagged several gold medals at the national level but failed to bag a job through DSC – 2025.

Once the recruitment process was completed and “money changed hands,” the gates were closed by issuing GOs, reverting the earlier orders that candidates need not write qualifying exam for sports quota, Jagan alleged.

Jagan demanded a CBI probe into the recent government teacher recruitment in the southern state, saying an inquiry by the state government will not inspire confidence as Naidu is the CM, his son Nare Lokesh Education Minister and all the state agencies report to him.

Jagan said YSRCP will highlight Naidu’s alleged failure to fulfil poll promises on June 12, second anniversary of the coalition government, in all the constituencies through protest rallies.

Addressing the controversy surrounding the decision to entrust the SCERT director with conducting the entire exam, Sashidhar said for administrative convenience government has the prerogative to place any officer where it wants to place.

“In this, there was no mistake or lapse. It is purely an administrative decision,” he said.

On the question paper setting process, he said 42,000 questions were compiled and fed into TCS Ion platform, which is widely used, including by institutes such as IITs, IIMs, AIIMS and others.

Further, he said no discrepancy occurred anywhere and mere issuing of call letter for verification does not mean that a candidate is selected.