Telangana, Andhra Pradesh staff division in limbo

Hyderabad: There’s a big question over the division of staff between Telangana State and Andhra Pradesh. Though 15 months have passed since the Kamaln-athan Committee was set up, it has been able to complete distribution of only 17,000 out of the total 54,000 state cadre staff till date while its term is set to expire on October 25 even after a six-month extension.

While AP is seeking extension of the committee’s term till March next year, Telangana is opposing it due to stiff resistance from its employees’ unions.

The bifurcation of staff in zonal, multi-zonal and district level is yet to be initiated though the Kamalnathan Committee is not entrusted with this responsibility.

Employees say it would take a few more years to complete distribution of staff on a full scale.

Meanwhile, the Tela-ngana employees’ unions are stepping up pressure on the TS government not to issue joining orders to AP staff who have been allotted to Telangana by the committee.

While extending the committee’s deadline by six months in March this year, the Centre had fixed “time-bound targets” for the committee. However, due to frequent rows between TS and AP governments and employees’ unions, these targets could not be met.

The committee had been asked to seek “options” from employees over choosing their state-cadre from April 30. Vacancy details were to be obtained from all HoDs by May 21 and temporary allocations made by June 21.

Objections, if any, from employees on temporary allocations, were to be received till August 10. Based on these objections, the final allocation list was to be released by Aug-ust 30.

The committee should submit the final list of posts to be allocated to TS and AP and the list of employees to the Centre by September 30.

The final list of employees allocated to TS and AP was then to be submitted to the Department of Personnel and Training by October 15.

The tenure of the committee, appointed by then UPA government in March 2014, had expired on March 29, 2015. However, the NDA extended the term till October 25.

Out of 153 departments, the panel completed bifurcation of 70 per cent staff in 113 departments so far.

Only in 42 departments, 100 per cent bifurcation has been completed while 90 per cent has been completed in 62 departments.

However, the committee has received nearly 800 written complaints over the allotments which will be looked into on September 10 and 11.

Out of 16,930 employees distributed so far, TS got 8,235 and AP 8,695 employees.