Andhra Pradesh staff want their plots safe in Telangana

Hyderabad: AP government employees on Wednesday made it clear that they want their interests in Hyderabad protected if the shifting of offices from Hyderabad to the AP capital region is to be a smooth affair.

The major apprehension among the employees is that they would lose their house sites allotted in Gachibowli if they shift before the plots are registered on their individual names. The government of undivided Andhra Pradesh had allocated land in Gachibowli for its employees. After bifurcation, Telangana employees said that they would press the Andhra Pradesh government to allot plots to its employees in their own state. A case on this issue is pending before the High Court.

During Wednesday’s meeting with chief secretary I.Y.R. Krishna Rao, leaders of all the nine employees associations said they were ready to shift, but wanted the government to come out with a roadmap on shifting, and also address the apprehensions of the employees working in Hyderabad, many of whom also own houses.

The associations’ leaders pointed out that the employees are well settled with families here. Spouses of many employees also work in Hyderabad and their children have ‘local status’ in educational institutions. ‘What would be their local status in AP,’ the employees JAC leaders asked the CS.

They also said that it was not correct on part of the AP government to ask the employees to shift in the middle of the academic year. The roadmap should be clear on the time, date and phase-wise shifting of the number of employees, officers, departments.

The government agreed to a meeting with the Chief Minister on shifting,’ said Revenue Services Association president Bopparaju Venkateshwarlu. A series of meetings are on the anvil, till a solution is found on the contentious issue.

Ashok Babu and N Chandrasekhar Reddy of Andhra Pradesh Non Gazetted Officers Association, Bopparaju Venkateshwarlu of Revenue Services Association, U Murali Krishna of AP Secretariat Employees Association among others attended the meeting.

Mr Krishna Rao confirmed that everyone agreed to shift as early as possible. “The State government will write to the Centre on providing local status to the children of employees in AP and would look into all the other issues raised by the JAC leaders,” he said.