Shifting to capital region to be a long-drawn affair

Hyderabad: It would take at least another two more months for complete shifting of the AP Secretariat departments from Hyderabad to the new capital. Officers and employees of transport, road & buildings and AP Vigilance department returned to Hyderabad after conducting the occupation ceremony on the first floor of the Fifth Block at the Temporary Secretariat in Velagapudi on Thursday.

Among the five secretariat buildings, the setting up of offices in the 5th block is at an advance stage. Officials said that the completion of the works for the building would take another three weeks to one month. The works on the other buildings would take another two months. The state government has asked six secretariat departments to start function from Temporary Secretariat from July 21, and the remaining departments from July 29. But the six departments are continuing at the Hyderabad Secretariat.

According to officials in the Fifth Block, there is no water, proper power supply and Net service, which are temporarily provided. Until all these facilities are provided, it would not be possible to function from Velagapudi. A senior officer said there yet was no working atmosphere at Velagapudi. The contractor said works could be completed by the end of August. After that, to provide other facilities like power, net service etc, it will take one month's time.

An IAS officer said that, according to the present situation, it was possible to shift the entire secretariat from Hyderabad to Velagapudi by end September. Meanwhile, the heads of the department (HoDs) are also facing problems to shift from Hyderabad to the capital region. Many HoDs have taken rented buildings near Vijayawada and Guntur cities and did renovation work. The state government issued orders asking the HoDs to take required amounts for shifting their offices to the capital region.

In the finance department, higher authorities are sanctioning funds as requested by HoDs, but the lower level officers are delaying the release of funds by putting up queries. The state government has directed all HoDs to shift their base from Hyderabad to the capital region by June 27. But officials of HoDs said it would take another one to two months to shift all HoDs to the capital region.