YSR Congress leader and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday demanded a thorough probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into alleged widespread irregularities in the recruitment of teachers through District Selection Committees (DSC) last year.
Speaking to reporters at his office in Tadepalli camp, Jagan alleged that the DSC-2025 teacher recruitment was a big scam – right from question paper preparation to recruitment. “Thousands of aspirants worked hard to get 16,000 jobs, but the process was riddled with irregularities. The jobs were up for sale,” he said.
The YSRCP chief said the dysfunction started when the state government marginalized the DSC regulator and outsourced the responsibility of question paper preparation and examination administration to the SCERT director, concentrating key responsibilities in a single authority, thereby undermining transparency in the recruitment process.
Jagan claimed that the question paper was leaked to select a few candidates who got the jobs. “How far the matter has gone, how many people have accessed the question paper and how much money has changed hands will be revealed only if the CBI investigates the issue,” he said, adding that the merit list was not displayed at the district level, but was centralized in the name of online procedure.
He said the Chandrababu Naidu government had made a lot of mockery of the DSC exam, by issuing GOs stating that under the sports quota, candidates need not write the qualifying exam and that mere participation was sufficient for the job.
“This has opened the floodgates to accommodate their favourites. Participation certificates have been awarded by TDP MLAs and Members of Parliament who certify that they have participated in college, university and district level competitions and secured jobs,” Jagan claimed.
He said genuine candidates, including a National Games gold medalist who was called for interview, were not getting the jobs. “In total, 270 people got jobs in the sports quota without passing the qualifying exam,” he said.
Responding to Jagan’s allegations, School Education Minister Kona Sasidhar said the entire recruitment process was conducted transparently, fairly and strictly in accordance with notified rules, government orders and legal provisions.
Rejecting allegations of leakage of question papers, the Education Minister clarified that the exams were conducted through TCS iON, one of India’s most trusted computer-based exam platforms used across the country.
“Different question papers for different exam sessions have been generated through a random question bank system comprising nearly 42,000 questions prepared under strict confidentiality by subject matter experts. Therefore, there is no doubt of a leak,” he said.
He said the recruitment had implemented horizontal reservations for women, persons with standard disabilities, ex-servicemen and meritorious sportspersons, while incorporating the SC sub-categorisation for the first time.
He added: “The process of assigning sports classes was conducted independently and with complete transparency. No violation or violation of standards was proven in the process of selecting sports classes.”
