DYFI slams police recruitment notification, announces State-wide protests

The Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) State committee has alleged that the State Level Police Recruitment Board (SLPRB) had misled unemployed youth by issuing a notification for police recruitment without including adequate vacancies for constables.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, DYFI State president M.V. Ramana and secretary G. Ramanna said that the coalition government had promised before coming to power to support the youth and fill vacant posts. They recalled that during the ‘Yuva Galam’ padayatra, Nara Lokesh had assured the youth that vacancies would be filled and justice done to unemployed candidates.

The leaders said the federation would organise protests across Andhra Pradesh on Thursday and Friday in support of their demand to increase the number of police constable vacancies.

They said the Home Minister and the State government had, on several occasions, stated that around 20,000 police constable posts were vacant and would be filled shortly. Believing these assurances, unemployed youth had been preparing for the recruitment examinations for years, attending classes in coaching centres, study halls and libraries and investing considerable time and money in their preparation. But the latest notification without adequate constable vacancies had caused disappointment among the aspirants, they said.

The federation leaders said the unemployed youth in the State was in a “very unfortunate” situation and alleged that even their right to express their grievances was being curtailed through police action. They said nearly eight lakh unemployed youth were preparing for police constable recruitment, while the government had issued a notification for only 1,156 constable and 378 Sub-Inspector posts.

The DYFI demanded that the notification be revised immediately and the number of vacancies increased by 11,639. It also sought enhancement of the upper age limit for police constable aspirants to 35 years. The leaders urged the government to stop what they termed “harassment of private coaching centres” and demanded that the government itself run coaching centres for unemployed candidates. They also called for an end to alleged harassment of unemployed youth.