Hyderabad, October 29: It’s official now. The state government has resolved to fill vacant posts of Secondary Grade Teachers (SGT) providing 30 per cent reservation to D Ed candidates.
Orders to this effect are likely to be issued in a day or two. Secondary education minister D Manikya Vara Prasad said here on Thursday that the file had been forwarded to the department of school education for further action. However, it is not clear as of now whether all the posts will be filled immediately or not.
Even though B Ed candidates have been on warpath demanding filling of all the 30,700 SGT posts on the basis of merit, the government wanted to keep its promise of providing 30 per cent reservation to D Ed candidates who launched a counter-agitation.
It was initially decided to fill only 70 per cent posts on merit basis immediately and the remaining after the High Court delivers its judgement on the petitions filed for and against reservation to diploma-holders.
However, official sources said that they obtained legal opinion and are ready to go ahead to fill all the posts at once.
Though the decision had been taken a week ago and chief minister K Rosaiah signed the files pertaining to conducting the counselling, secondary education minister D Manikya Vara Prasad refrained from making an announcement perhaps fearing a backlash from B Ed candidates.
He had been holding talks with both groups for a consensus on conducting counselling for recruitment to at least 70 per cent posts immediately.
The government is of the view that unless the posts are filled immediately, the exercise will face obstacles after December 31 when the agitations for and against bifurcation of the state are likely to be intensified.
As against the 30,700 SGT posts notified under DSC-2008, there are 26,330 vacancies while 4,340 posts need to be created to accommodate the remaining qualified candidates.
Officials have started the exercise of promoting teachers of SGT cadre to school assistant cadre and expect that at least 2,000 SGT posts will fall vacant after promotions.
For accommodating the remaining posts, the government is considering other options such as filling the posts of wardens.
The issue has been pending for long following a legal dispute between D Ed and B.Ed candidates selected in the DSC-2008 test over 30 pc quota for D Ed candidates.
The government issued two orders containing the Rules for Recruitment where one of them provided 30 pc reservation to D Ed candidates which led to row between the D Ed and B Ed candidates.
–Agencies