Scrap order cancelling hiring: Aspirants to KPTCL

BENGALURU: Over 200 aspirants from across Karnataka, aiming to get absorbed into the workforce of the Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL), staged a protest at Freedom Park on Monday, demanding that an order which cancelled the recruitment process recently be withdrawn. They held banners and organised a sit-in protest from 9 am to 6 pm. 

Unlike the previous protest on November 24 at Cauvery Bhavan, which was stopped by police since prior permission was not sought, this time around though, they have obtained permission to protest on Monday and Tuesday.   On November 21, the KPTCL published an alert on its website cancelling the recruitment process. A total of 2,02,498 candidates had applied for 1,559 posts in the corporation, which had advertised in February 2019 for five specific posts - Junior Engineer (Civil), Assistant Engineer (Civil), JE (Electronics), AE (Electronics), and Junior Assistant.

Among them was Chandrika, a Bengalurean who holds a B.E in Electrical Engineering. “I had applied for both JE and AE posts. Following the notification issued early last year, I have been seriously studying to clear the qualification exams and have been attending coaching classes too. The sudden cancellation has affected me enormously as my preparations have gone waste now,” she said.

Surya, a graduate from Mandya, said, “We had aspirants joining us from Bidar to Chamarajanagar. So many of us have invested money and time in coaching centres in Bengaluru to crack the exam. How can they cancel it suddenly like this? We will be meeting Opposition leader D K Shivakumar on Tuesday to seek his support in our struggle so that he can raise the issue in the ongoing session.”