Hyderabad: The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Thursday, October 29, stepped up its attack on the Congress government over the Telangana Overseas Manpower Company (TOMCOM), following Siasat.com’s two-part investigation into the state agency’s Germany job programmes.
Addressing the media at Telangana Bhavan, BRS general secretary RS Praveen Kumar accused Labour Minister G Vivek Venkatswamy of travelling abroad at taxpayers’ expense while job aspirants who had paid TOMCOM lost their money. He called it the “TOMCOM scam.”
Siasat.com’s investigation found that none of the 24 Ausbildung candidates who spoke to it could name a German employer that had interviewed them. Candidates said a contract weakening the promise of interviews was introduced after they had paid about Rs 1.28 lakh each. In a separate bus-driver programme, two candidates said they were told A2-level German would be enough, only for officials to demand B1 or B2 four months into training.
Kumar went further than the reporting. “Several people were promised jobs like electricians and in the hospitality sector. However, they were sent abroad on tourist visas and promised jobs. When they reached the destination, they were cheated,” he said. He also alleged that candidates promised technical jobs ended up working in mutton shops abroad.
Kumar did not identify the people involved. “If I reveal the identities, police will pick up the aspirants and question them for raising concerns,” he said, adding that the BRS had verified the aspirants’ claims before raising them.
Rs 4.10 lakh collected: RS Praveen Kumar
Kumar said the government had collected Rs 4.10 lakh from each aspirant, including some from Andhra Pradesh, and that candidates were “scammed” into signing agreement forms that did not carry TOMCOM’s name. Rs 4,10,400 was the fee on paper for the first Ausbildung batch. The 22 candidates who disclosed their payments to Siasat.com had paid a net Rs 2.5 lakh to about Rs 3 lakh each.
He said aspirants were pressured to pay another Rs 20,000 for German language exams and that some were asked to travel to Chennai to write them. “Those who were selected for the jobs were not sent to Germany,” he said. Candidates told Siasat.com that exam slots were scarce and that some travelled to centres in Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru at their own cost.
Kumar asked the minister whether he would send his own children for such jobs and how the government benefited from what he called the “cheating of aspirants.” He asked the government to address the role of Fairstreet India Pvt Ltd, TOMCOM’s private partner, and urged Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy and Venkatswamy to meet the aspirants and refund their money.
“I urge Vivek Venkatswamy to refund the victims from the firm that he owns, which is worth Rs 10,000 crore,” he said. Venkatswamy is the promoter of the Visaka group of companies.
Kumar also accused the government of offering “scams” in place of the job calendar the Congress promised before the 2023 Assembly elections. In an unrelated allegation, he claimed the government had directed officials to hire outsourced employees only through a firm he named as Tanu Agency. He ended by urging job aspirants to be wary of such schemes.
Harish Rao’s demands
The press conference follows a post on X on October 18 by former minister and Siddipet MLA T Harish Rao, who alleged that the government had turned TOMCOM into “a racket that loots unemployed youth.”
Citing Siasat.com’s report, Harish Rao said not one of the 24 candidates could name a German employer who had interviewed them. He also pointed out that disputes under the candidates’ agreement had to be settled in a court in Lucknow, more than 1,000 km away.
He demanded “a full refund of every rupee collected by TOMCOM and Fairstreet India,” compensation for the two years lost, the interest burden and the mental agony, alternative jobs for every candidate, an immediate CID or judicial probe, criminal cases against those responsible, and “a white paper on fees collected versus actual overseas placements.”
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