Andhra’s Transparent Mega DSC Comes With 335 Court Cases

Andhra Pradesh has achieved something governments usually prefer to announce in future tense: the Naidu government notified 16,347 teacher posts and says it filled 15,941 of them in 148 days. More than 3.36 lakh candidates applied, generating around 5.77 lakh applications and, presumably, enough paperwork to qualify as a second education department.

That is a real achievement. Nearly 16,000 appointments matter to the people appointed and to schools that need teachers. But Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and HRD Minister Nara Lokesh have wrapped the exercise in such a thick layer of political self-congratulation that “Mega DSC” now sounds less like recruitment and more like a party-owned monument. Lokesh’s formulation — “DSC is synonymous with the TDP, and the TDP with DSC” — was admirably clear. In Andhra Pradesh, even a government job must apparently carry a party watermark.

The government says the process was transparent and merit-based despite roughly 250 litigations. Other accounts put the number of cases at 335, including 69 linked to the sports quota, along with Supreme Court cases and PILs. A process can survive litigation and still deserve scrutiny. “We filled the posts” is not a magic spell that turns every disputed selection into settled truth. It is evidence of delivery, not a certificate of perfection.

YSR Congress chief YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has alleged that people who did not sit the examination received jobs and has demanded a CBI investigation. The government rejects the charge and says proof has not been produced. That is where the opposition encounters its own small administrative burden: if the allegation is specific, the evidence must be specific too. A television demand for a CBI probe is not a substitute for the records it claims to want examined.

Naidu wants the YSRCP in the Assembly to debate the matter. Jagan wants an investigation. Lokesh wants the initials DSC permanently engraved beside TDP. The candidates would probably settle for the selection process being clear enough not to require a political ownership dispute. Andhra Pradesh has filled 15,941 teacher posts. The remaining vacancy is transparency.