Former DGP Mahender Reddy appointed as Chairman of beleaguered TSPSC

Chairman post filled

Chief Minister Revanth Reddy’s diplomacy with Soundararajan seems to have paid off since he raised the need for the early clearance of the file when he called on her on Wednesday, along with Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka.

The state government forwarded three names, including that of Mahender Reddy, to the Governor a few days ago after the search committee shortlisted the names. The TSPSC received about 50 applications for the Chairman’s post.

Mahender Reddy, a 1986-batch IPS officer served the Police Department for 36 years. He became the DGP of Telangana in November 2017 and retired on 31 December 2022. He hails from Kistapuram in Kusumanchi Mandal in erstwhile Khammam district.

It is now expected that the process of recruitment for government jobs will be expedited.

Also Read: Janardhan Reddy resigns as TSPSC chairman, cites personal reasons

Delay in accepting resignations explained

The government hastened the process of the appointment of the new Chairman after the incumbent Chairman B Janardhan Reddy and other members resigned following the change in the guard in the state.

The charge against the former chairman and the other members of the TSPSC was that they did not implement foolproof measures to conduct competitive examinations for appointment to government posts, which led to leakage of question papers and postponement of examinations during the rule of the KCR government.

Governor Soundararajan, on 10 January, accepted the resignations of Janardhan Reddy and three other members — R Satyanarayana, Prof Bandi Lingareddy, and Karam Ravinder Reddy.

The Raj Bhavan, explaining the delay in accepting the resignation, said that as soon as the Governor had received the resignations, they were sent to the state government through the Chief Minister for circulation, as per business rules, along with the remarks and the opinion of the Advocate General. The file came back to the Raj Bhavan on 9 January and the resignations were accepted the following day.

Also Read: Telangana government gets cracking on cleansing TSPSC, seeks applications for posts of chairman, members

Cleansing the TSPSC

After coming to power, Revanth Reddy and Irrigation Minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy took a keen interest in cleansing the TSPSC.

They were determined to clear the cobwebs in the TSPSC and make it a fool-proof institution to conduct competitive examinations for filling the state government vacancies along the lines of the UPSC.

The focus has been laid on the TSPSC since the youth of the state had taken an active part in the Telangana movement hoping that they would get jobs once the state is formed.

The Chief Minister and the Irrigation Minister met with UPSC Chairman Manoj Soni on 5 January in Delhi and discussed implementing best practices in TSPSC to restore its credibility in the wake of the leak of Group I preliminary examination question papers and two other examinations.

Since the unemployed youth could not get the jobs they had expected during the past decade after the formation of the state in 2014, the Congress exploited the youths’ frustration in the elections, which is believed to be one of the factors that had helped the Congress win the Assembly elections.