Staff in Andhra Pradesh not interested in local status

Hyderabad: AP employees who had pressurised the state government to grant them local status before shifting to Amaravati region from Hyderabad, are now not showing any interest in getting the local status in Andhra Pradesh.  More than 70 per cent of state government employees have not applied for local status for themselves or their children. One year ago, about 6,000 employees of the AP secretariat and heads of the department shifted to Amaravati region from Hyderabad as part of the shifting of the administration post bifurcation of the then state of AP.

After two years of pursuing the matter, Presidential assent has come on local status. But of the 6,000 employees who are eligible for claiming local status, only 2,186 employees have applied for it so far. The state government has so far given local status to 1,800 employees, and the remaining applications are under process.

When the AP government decided to shift the administration from Hyderabad to Amaravati region, state government employees made local status an issue. Union leaders pointed out that the children of some of the employees are in crucial stages of their education and should not be shifted to the capital region without the local status issue being resolved. Getting admission for these children would also be extremely difficult and there would be problems with getting government jobs later. They demanded that the state government first resolve the local status issue and then shift the administration from Hyderabad to Amaravati. 

Now, the Presidential assent for local status has come through, but a majority of employees have not applied for it. In fact, almost all the employees who worked here at the Hyderabad Secretariat for more than a decade have settled here.  And a majority of the employees who are working in Amaravati have left their families in Hyderabad and visit them on weekends.