Telangana opposition demands probe into Singareni Collieries 'job scam'

The first-ever job recruitment test conducted by the Telangana State government after bifurcation for junior assistants in the Singareni Collieries is in trouble.

Students of Osmania University took out a rally on Monday, alleging irregularities in the examinations and claiming that a small time employee working a private agency has topped the examination with 90 per cent score, which is said to be a very difficult test.

A day later, the allegations have gathered steam. Over 83,000 candidates had initially appeared for exam on October 10 for around 470 jobs. 

Congress leaders have alleged that many people seemed to have got the posts due to their "family name."

A report in the Deccan Chronicle adds that there are 301 candidates with the family name 'Bandi', another 231 candidates have the family name of 'Bandari', another 298 carry the family name of 'Thota' and 165 candidates have 'Pothu' as their family name while 149 have 'Uppu'.

The Telangana State Pradesh Congress Committee spokesperson Konagala Mahesh, along with students and other leaders, submitted a memorandum to TS energy minister G. Jagadishwar Reddy demanding a probe into the results.

"The issue surfaced some days back when one of the candidates, who got a job in Singareni as junior assistant, was roughed by his relatives for not informing them in advance or else they too would have paid money and got jobs for their children. This candidate, his brother-in-law and a few cousins had got jobs. The candidate was working in a private firm and had completed his studies a decade back. This incident occurred in Mancheryal,” TPCC leader Mr Mahesh told DC.

There are also allegations that some of the candidates who had paid money were given the questions papers in advance. 

However TRS MP Kavitha told the newspaper that "the Singareni management did not conduct the exam. It was conducted by JNTU in a transparent manner." while Singareni Collieries chairman and managing director N. Sridhar brushed aside the allegations as "baseless", adding that there was no irregularity.