Hyderabad: The Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Institutions Society (TMREIS) president, Mohammed Faheemuddin Qureshi, on Wednesday, December 17, said the government body only has 40 vacancies, contradicting a Right to Information (RTI) query that revealed over 2,600 teaching and non-teaching posts were lying vacant in the state.
Based on the information obtained through an RTI query filed by activist Kareem Ansari, 2,669 posts are lying in TMREIS, including 72 principal posts and more than 656 junior lecturer posts. The RTI was published by Siasat Urdu newspaper on Tuesday, December 16, and the New Indian Express on Monday, December 15.
Speaking to Siasat.com, Qureshi said all 205 schools under TMREIS have principals and very few vacancies, insisting there are “only 40 posts that are lying vacant.”
Addressing a press conference along with Minister for Minorities Welfare Mohammed Azharuddin, Qureshi on Tuesday, December 17, said, “Certain newspapers have published incorrect information and misinformed the public. Misguiding the people is a big crime, and serious action will be taken against them.”
Referring to the reports, Qureshi told reporters, “Our data shows that there are only 40 posts vacant. As many as 3,846 general posts and 3,497 outsourced jobs are already filled. So, a total of 7,338 vacancies are filled, which includes teaching and non-teaching staff. There are only 40 positions that are lying vacant.”
Ansari, who filed the RTI query on October 9 and received a reply on November 9, said, “The Public Information Officer of TMREIS is the one who provided me the information in the RTI I filed. What information I received, I shared with the media.”
He said that if the President of TMREIS is saying the number is false, then “how is it possible that the PIO, without verifying the information, is providing false information to the applicant?”
“If the number is wrong, who is responsible for providing false information? Because the information is admissible in the court of law,” Ansari, who runs YouRTI.in, which has been helping citizens file RTIs for eight years.
On Wednesday, Qureshi told Siasat.com that he was ready to provide the data that shows this. “The question the RTI was misleading. There was no clarity, based on which the answers were given, leading to the controversy,” he said.
The president of TMREIS said that whoever is responsible for providing the data will face stern action.
