E-Paper
Andhra MLA gets selected for govt teacher’s job. He was interviewed 24 yrs ago
YSR Congress Party legislator Karanam Dharmasri appeared for an interview to get a teacher’s job. The results were stuck due to a legal battle fought by some candidates and the aspiring teacher, joined politics
A YSR Congress Party legislator Karanam Dharmasri, 54, was selected as a government school teacher on Monday, nearly 24 years after he appeared for the interview because of protracted legal battles.
On Monday, Dharmasri, who represents Chodavaram assembly segment in Andhra Pradesh’s Anakapalli district was told that his name figured in the list of candidates cleared for recruitment as a teacher.
“I received a call from a senior official in the state education department that my name was among the candidates qualified for teacher jobs in 1998, as per the list cleared by the government. After that, I was flooded with calls from several friends who appeared for the teachers’ recruitment test along with me,” Dharmasri told Hindustan Times.
Born in a family of farmers, the YSRCP leader did his graduation in social sciences in 1989 from Andhra University and got a degree in education from Annamalai University in distance mode in 1993.
“Like many of my friends, I, too, wanted to become a teacher. I cleared the written test for teachers’ recruitment in 1998 for English and Social Studies subjects. In the interview, conducted by then Visakhapatnam collector Narsing Rao, I answered all the questions and was hoping to get a job,” Dharmasri recalled.
But like many many others, Dharmasri’s name did not figure in the final list due to a controversy over the reduction of the cut-off marks for qualification.
“The issue was caught in the legal wrangle, as some of the candidates moved the tribunal,” he said.
Thanking chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for clearing the file regarding the recruitment of 1998-batch teachers, Dharmasri said it has given hope to many candidates who suffered a lot over the last two decades. “Some of them became labourers, porters and even beggars. Now, they can all lead respectable lives at least at the fag end of their lives,” he said.
While many of his friends went on to become teachers, Dharmasri was pulled into politics. “I was 30 years old then and inspired by the then Congress legislature party leader Dr YS Rajasekhar Reddy (YSR), I started taking an active part in the Youth Congress activities in Visakhapatnam district,” he said.
In 2003, when YSR undertook a marathon padayatra across the state, Dharmasri played a key role in making the arrangements in the Visakhapatnam district. “I also led a delegation of the qualified candidates of 1998 recruitment test to give a representation to YSR, who promised to consider the issue once the Congress came to power,” he said.
In the 2004 assembly elections, Dharmasri became an MLA from Madugula assembly constituency and over the years, became a prominent leader despite electoral setbacks in 2009 and 2014 on Congress and YSRCP tickets, respectively. He finally won in 2019 again.
“In the last two decades of my political growth, I completely forgot that I was once an aspirant for teachers’ job. Now, after so many years, when I was told that I was selected as a teacher, it amused me,” he said.
The MLA said he, too, would have continued in the teaching profession had he been appointed in 1998, instead of coming into politics. “Now, I am touring village to village, to resolve the people’s issues.”
