Group 2 exam slated for Jan 6 postponed; TSPSC board must be in place to take call

HYDERABAD: The Telangana Government has announced that the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC)

Group-2 exams, slated for January 6 and 7, 2024, have been postponed.

The exams were already rescheduled twice previously due to paper leak. On Wednesday, Chief Minister Revanth Reddy had informed that for the State Government to carry out the due process, the Governor had to accept the resignation of the former chairman and members of the board and that new appointments have to be made.

TSPSC chairman Janardhan Reddy had submitted his resignation to Governor Tamilisai Soundarajan after meeting the newly elected Chief Minister on December 11. However the resignation is still under review.

Addressing media on Wednesday, Revanth Reddy had assured Government job aspirants and those preparing for the TSPSC Group 2 exams that two lakh Government jobs in Telangana would be filled by December 2024.

The newly elected Congress Government had earlier stated that it had asked the TSPSC chairman and its board members to resign after coming to power to clean the corruption of the commission.

Exams deferred: Leaks and controversies

B Janardhan Reddy was appointed as the TSPSC chairman in May 2021. However, since the controversial TSPSC leak in March 2023, several aspirants and protestors demanded his resignation. The preliminary exam for 503 Group 1 positions was held in October 2022. About three lakh students appeared for the exam, among which 25,000 cleared and prepared for the main exam which was re-scheduled on June 5, 2023.

The Assistant Engineer (AE) exams in various departments held by TSPSC were attended by approximately 55,000 aspirants. The paper leak came to light after the commission complained to Begum Bazar police on March 11, 2023. Following the TSPSC paper leak, several protests were held by aspirants, students, student organisations, and the opposition demanding justice for the students.They even demanded that the examination be cancelled and demanded resignation of TSPSC Chairman B Janardhan Reddy.

The accused, according to the Hyderabad police, leaked the question paper in exchange for monetary gains. P Praveen Kumar (32), an Assistant Section Officer (ASO), and Rajashekar Reddy (35), a network administrator with the Telangana State Technology Services outsourced to the Commission, stole data from the confidential section to leak the question paper. In March 2023, the exam paper leak case was transferred to a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by city commissioner CV Anand. SIT had arrested nearly 100 suspects in the case since then.

The Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) cancelled the Group 1 prelims examination held in October 2022 after the special investigation team (SIT) obtained evidence regarding the question paper leak. TSPSC also cancelled the January 22 assistant executive engineer (AEE) exam and the February 16 divisional accounts officer (DAO) exam.

The exams scheduled on the June 11 exam were also cancelled after the National Students Union of India (NSUI) filed a petition in Telangana High Court voicing concerns about the exam's conduct due to the lack of biometrics. On August 16, the Telangana High Court issued a notice to the Telangana government in a PIL plea seeking a CBI inquiry into the alleged leak of question papers from Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) Group-I and Assistant Engineer exams.

The Congress, which formed the Government in Telangana a week ago, vowed in its election campaign to revamp the TSPSC, release the recruitment calendar, and fill two lakh government jobs. As promised, Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy met Janardan Reddy and other senior officials on Monday to explore ideas for revamping the TSPSC examination.