TGPSC fee hike sparks outrage among Telangana job aspirants

The Telangana Public Service Commission has increased the application processing fee for recruitment notifications from Rs 200 to Rs 1,000, triggering protests among unemployed youth. Aspirants say the steep hike places an additional financial burden on candidates seeking government jobs.

Hyderabad: The Telangana Public Service Commission (TGPSC) has sparked outrage among aspirants by raising the application processing fee for recently released recruitment notifications by a staggering 400 per cent.

The Commission, which recently notified five recruitments, increased the application processing fee from Rs 200 to Rs 1,000, offering no concession to BC candidates. The Commission, however, has provided concessions to SC, ST and PwD applicants, who have to pay Rs 500 instead of Rs 1,000. The Commission did not hike the examination fee, which remains at Rs 120.

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During the tenure of the BRS government, the application processing fee was Rs 200. For instance, Assistant Executive Engineer (AEE) vacancies notified in various departments in 2022 carried an application processing fee of Rs 200 and an examination fee of Rs 120.

For the same AEE (Civil) vacancies in the Transport Roads and Buildings Department, applicants now have to pay Rs 1,000 towards the application processing fee and Rs 120 as the examination fee.

Earlier, engineering-related vacancies were notified through a common recruitment notification. However, such vacancies have now been split into multiple separate notifications, forcing unemployed candidates to apply separately for each notification and increasing the financial burden on them.

Further, the steep hike has triggered anger among unemployed youth who are already frustrated with the Telangana Congress government for allegedly failing to honour its poll promise of filling two lakh vacancies within one year in government departments.

“During the Assembly election campaign, Telangana Congress leaders assured unemployed youth that there would be no fee for applying to recruitment notifications. But now the government has increased the fee from Rs 200 to Rs 1,000. In this way, unemployed candidates, particularly those from economically weaker sections, are being deprived of the opportunity to appear for recruitment examinations. We have scheduled a protest programme on Tuesday. We demand an immediate rollback of the hiked fee,” said Indra Nayak, an unemployed youth leader.

The TGPSC recently issued notifications for 222 AEE (Civil) and 49 AEE (Electrical) posts in the Roads and Buildings Department, 19 Assistant Environmental Engineer posts in the Pollution Control Board, and 24 Deputy Education Officer posts in the School Education Department.