By Mohammed Siddique, TwoCircles.net
Hyderabad: Seven Muslim men and women, who got selected in Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission Group I Examination and were posted to the senior position in police and other departments today called on the Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy to thank him for his policy of 4% reservations for Muslims in education and government jobs.
Six of the seven successful candidates were the beneficiaries of the 4% reservation quota while one Ms. Ayesha Khan was successful in general category.
The results of the APPSC Group I exams were announced recently in which about 150 candidates were declared successful.
Congratulating the candidates on their achievement, the Chief Minister expressed satisfaction that the reservation policy was yielding results for the Muslim community. This was first time that seven Muslims got selected for Group I jobs.
“Good. Keep it up. Muslims should fully use the opportunities the government was trying to provide them”, he said. CM was keen to know why only one Muslim could get through in the general category and hoped that they will work hard to further improve the situation.
Speaking on the behalf of the successful candidate, Ayesha Khan told the Chief Minister that it was thanks to his policy of reservation that at least a few Muslims were selected.
“60 years ago the efforts of Dr B R Ambedkar to provide reservations to Muslims could not succeed but now you have succeeded and because of this we could get this opportunity”, another candidate observed.
Significantly there are three women among the seven successful Muslims. While Ayesha Khan has been appointed the Joint Collector in Adilabad district, the six candidates who were selected under reservation quota opted for different departments. They are Shakella Bano (deputy superintendent of police, Nalgonda district), Kareemulah Shareef (DSP-Krishna district), Ms. Yasmeen Basha (deputy collector Ranga Reddy district), Abdul Quader Jeelani (Divisional Forest Officer, Krishna), Shaikh Zaheer (Treasury Officer) and Md Rahmatullah (AAO).
The doors of progress will be open for the office of the Group I in state services as they can be promoted at a later stage to the Indian Police Service and Indian Administrative Service. This is significant because there are only a handful of Muslim IPS and IAS officers in the state. They include Janna Hussain, Special Secretary to the Chief Minister, Syed Ilyas Rizvi, the managing director of Muslim Minorities Financial Corporation, SM Rizvi, vice chairman, Deccan Infrastructure and Land Holdings and Mohammed Shafeequzzaman.
The Muslim IPS officers in the state include Abdul Khayyum Khan (Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order), Anwarul Huda (Head, Enforcement and Vigilance), Ahsan Raza (Anti Corruption Bureau) Shaikh Mohammed Iqbal (District superintendent of police, Medak).
The meeting of the successful candidates with the Chief Minister was organized by Muslim Welfare Forum to thank the Chief Minister. Speaking on the occasion secretary M Babar and other officials said that the reservation policy had already benefited Muslims extensively in the field of reservation as last year 200 Muslim students got admission in medical colleges and 4000 in engineering colleges.
But as the case challenging the legal and constitutional validity of the Muslim Reservations Act 2007 was still pending in the High Court, the Chief Minister assured that the government will do everything possible to remove all the hurdles in the way of its implementation.
As the High Court has allowed the admission under reservation policy pending the final judgment, Muslim students will continue to benefit from the reservation quota in professional colleges this year too.