Uttarandhra Charcha Vedika (UCV) convener and former Minister Konathala Ramakrishna has appealed to Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to consider merit alone as the basis for the appointment of ‘gram’ and ‘ward’ volunteers in the State.

In a letter to the Chief Minister, the UCV convener, while welcoming the decision to appoint ‘village’ volunteers, said that ‘the proposal to conduct interviews for the posts would become a mean to provide employment to the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) workers.’

“YSRCP senior leader V. Vijaya Sai Reddy had told the booth-level leaders at a recent party meeting that justice would be done to party workers in the appointment of ‘village’ and ‘ward’ volunteers by giving them a top priority. This shows that the objective of these appointments is to provide jobs to the party workers,” Mr. Ramakrishna said.

He sought that appointments to these posts should be made after convening a meeting with all student and youth organisations, all political parties and taking their suggestions while implementing it in a transparent manner. The other demands include giving additional weightage for good academic qualifications, powers of the interview board should be restricted to scrutiny of certificates but should have no say in the appointment, implementing the rule of reservation and making details of the applicants and the selected candidates available to the public at the panchayat and ward offices.

He said that the UCV would not hesitate to go to court, if injustice was done to the unemployed youth.