Job aspirants: Flash protest in Hyd, demand 20K police jobs

Demanding that the Telangana government fill 20,000 vacancies in the police department, job aspirants on Monday staged a flash protest at Indira Park crossroads in Hyderabad.

Holding placards and raising slogans, the protesters, including aspirants for police constable and sub-inspector posts, accused the state government of reneging on its promise by issuing notifications for only about 7,000 vacancies.

The protest, organised by the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of unemployed youth, briefly disrupted traffic as demonstrators staged a road blockade by sitting on the road.

The protesters claimed that around 10 lakh aspirants across Telangana had been waiting for several years for recruitment notifications for 20,000 police jobs and expressed disappointment over the recent recruitment drive.

They also demanded notifications to fill vacancies in other government departments, including a mega DSC and Group I, II, III and IV posts.

Warning of an intensified agitation, the youth threatened to organise large-scale protests in front of the state Secretariat and other locations if their demands were not met. They alleged that the government was paying attention to student protests elsewhere while ignoring the concerns of unemployed youth in Telangana.

The protest is the latest in a series of demonstrations by unemployed youth over the past week. The participants also demanded an increase in the upper age limit for police recruitment, arguing that delays in issuing notifications had rendered thousands of aspirants ineligible after crossing the prescribed age threshold.

The protesters reminded Chief Minister Revanth Reddy of his promise to fill 20,000 vacancies in the police department.

Last week, unemployed youth announced the formation of the Telangana Endrin Party (TEP) to highlight employment-related issues. Under the slogan, "Job is our right, justice is our goal", they have been demanding a job calendar and the provision of two lakh jobs promised during the 2023 Assembly elections.

Meanwhile, the Telangana State Level Police Recruitment Board on July 29 issued four notifications for direct recruitment to 7,437 posts across the Police, Special Protection Force, Fire, Disaster Response, Emergency & Civil Defence, and Prisons & Correctional Services departments.