The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national general secretary Nara Lokesh, on Friday, stressed the need for stringent action to restrain the ruling Yuvajana Shramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) from misusing the public universities for providing jobs to its party activists in the private companies, in his letter to the Ministry of Education and the University Grants Commission (UGC).
He urged the UGC to prevent the abuse of State universities for conducting politically motivated events and job melas in Andhra Pradesh.
Seeking urgent action, Lokesh wrote separate letters to the Chairman of UGC as well as to the Secretary of the department of higher education, Ministry of Education.
"The YSRCP job melas in educational institutions were in total violation of the constitutional principles and established ethical norms," he pointed out in the letter.
Lokesh said, "on 1 April 2022, the then Rajya Sabha MP Vijaya Sai Reddy announced that their YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) will be conducting job melas in three universities, namely Andhra University (Visakhapatnam), Sri Venkateswara University (Tirupati), and Acharya Nagarjuna University (Guntur District)."
The TDP MLC pointed out that Vijaya Sai had not hesitated to say that these job melas were their party activity being held under the orders of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, who was also the president of the YSR Congress.
"These job melas are intended to benefit YSRCP cadre and those who worked for its win in the 2019 elections, the MP clarified.
Lokesh said Vijaya Sai had also promised to provide 15,000-25,000 jobs at private companies for candidates with qualifications up to class 10 and above. He had also launched a website for this purpose.
"This violates multiple constitutional principles. One, government institutions are being utilized for a YSRCP party activity. Two, by limiting the opportunities to only YSRCP party cadre and followers, the government is clearly neglecting lakhs of other graduates who remain unemployed."
Nara Lokesh recalled that as per the report of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate among graduates in AP has risen to 35 per cent now. This was alarmingly the highest in South India and the fourth highest in India, said the TDP leader. In this situation, it is shocking that the ruling YSRCP is conducting a job mela meant only for its own cadre and followers, alleged Lokesh.
Lokesh termed it 'unpardonable' that the YSRCP was giving a signal that party loyalty would be the foremost quality needed but not the right education and college background. "It would push our educational institutions into unwanted party politics. It is shocking that the ruling party of AP is resorting to such practices through its job melas, with active backing of the Chief Minister," said Lokesh.
The TDP MLC urged for prompt action on this issue and immediate corrective action from the UGC failing which the YSRCP job melas would set a bad precedent for other States.
"There should be no erosion of ethics and values in educational institutes," he added.
( With inputs from ANI )
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