Staff crunch hobbles TSPSC job drive

Hyderabad: Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) is facing staff crunch, making it difficult to conduct examinations to fill 1.12 lakh vacancies in the State government, according to senior official.

Speaking to The Hans India here on Tuesday, a senior official said the Public Service Commission (APPSC) in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh had around 30 sections to handle about 175 types of recruitments with a staff strength of about 300 employees. The TSPSC has, however, been working with skeletal staff.

“Currently, the TSPSC has only about 115 staff members out of which 95 are clerical staff and 20 are class IV employees. And, to handle the current assignments, the Commission needs an immediate recruitment of about 95 employees. But, the file relating to the recruitment of its own staff has been waiting for State government’s approval for more than six months, the source pointed out.

Moreover, several employees were asked to report to work even on holidays and Sundays though it was a violation of the rules. Yet, the staff crunch made the working of the Commission a daunting task.
And what is more, the State government has assigned the Commission the task of additional recruitment of candidates for various jobs in the government.

They include the teaching faculty for Forest Research College, school teachers, staff for Hyderabad Metropolitan Sewerage and Water Board (HMSWB) Board, doctors in the Health Department and teaching staff of medical colleges and the like.

It was against this backdrop that serious lapses are taking place. For example, in one of the circulars, the staff of the TSPSC had asked the candidates to submit the income certificate of the father and head of the family. But, several married women candidates could not get income tax certificates as the Revenue officials rejected their applications.

In fact, the staff of TSPSC had overlooked the government order which stipulated only the cumulative income of the family in case of Backward Classes reservations and it had not specified ‘either father or husband, he said.

Out of about 10 notifications issued by the Commission which is from the added list of new jobs, so far, it had completed interviews for most of them in last two months. It withdrew results only in case of two examinations, including the Group-I.

This was to ensure that the final results given by the Commission will not end up in court cases causing further distress to the candidates who have been waiting for the recruitments for years, the sources pointed out.

While the government has been announcing the recruitment of thousands of jobs, the file relating to the recruitment of its own staff has been languishing in the corridors of power, the sources pointed out.