YS Sharmila stages protest, demands KCR govt to release job notifications

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s sister YS Sharmila on Saturday staged a protest against Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR)-led government demanding to fill up government job vacancies in the state. 

“I am sitting on a hunger strike against the government of Telangana for failing to release notification to fill up government jobs,” Sharmila told ANI.

“This hunger strike is to create pressure on the government of Telangana to put the issue of unemployment as their top priority and make sure that they create jobs for the unemployed youth,” added Sharmila, who is a new entrant into politics. 

Earlier, the Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development, Kalvakuntla Taraka Rama Rao had stated that nearly 1,32,000 people have been provided jobs. 

Reacting to the Minister’s statement, YS Sharmila said if this is the case then why are the reports claiming that 1,91,000 government jobs are still vacant. 

Cornering the state government, she calimed young unemployed people have become “restless waiting for the notification and are now committing suicide”.

“For about the last 7 seven years, the state government has not issued any job notification and there are about 30 lakh unemployed youth in Telangana and now after waiting for all these years they have become restless and are now committing suicides,” she added.

Speaking about Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC), she said, “The TSPSC must originally consist of one chairperson and 10 committee members. But in Telangana, the system is being managed by only one person. The government must fill in these positions first so that the real reason behind the unemployment issue in the state comes to the limelight.”

She further spoke about her being taken into custody by the police for conducting a foot march on Thursday, the first day of her hunger strike.

“We have asked the police to grant permission to conduct a three days hunger strike at Dharna Chowk here in Hyderabad but we were only given permission for just 8 hours,” she said.

“When the Chief Minister of Telangana K Chandrasekhar Rao can hold a public meeting, then why cannot we be given permission to conduct a protest and why has not the police allowed us to do so. When we were on a foot march from Dharna Chowk to my residence in Lotus pond, to continue the protest, I was brutally stopped by the police and was taken into custody,” she added.

She informed that she will contest from Palair Assembly seat (Paleru) in Khammam district in Telangana Assembly elections to be held in December 2023.