Telangana-native Class-IV staff say no' to Amaravati

Hyderabad: With the deadline for shifting of AP Secretariat and other head offices located in Hyderabad to Amaravati fast approaching, Telangana-native Class-IV employees who were allotted to AP are refusing to move alleging discrimination and harassment by AP officials and staff. TS employees’ associations are exerting pressure on the state government to recall all these Class-IV employees allotted to AP by June 2 and give them postings in TS.

In the Secretariat alone, there are over 300 TS native staff who have been allotted to AP. They are serving as inward-outward staff in tappal sections, record assistants, photocopy machine operators, drivers, lift operators, jamedars, dafedars, office subordinates, motorcycle and cycle messengers, sweepers etc. As per the guidelines of AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, the staff was bifurcated between AP and TS proportionate to the population ratio (52:48 respectively).

Interestingly, there were higher number of Telangana native employees working as Class III and Class IV staff and more number of Andhra native employees working in higher cadres of Class-I and Class-II in the Secretariat in undivided AP. With this, TS native Class IV employees were allotted to AP due to ‘surplus’ in TS, while AP native higher cadre officials were allotted to TS, due to ‘deficiency’ in TS. While 304 lower cadre TS native staff were allotted to AP, 84 higher cadre AP native section officers were allotted to TS.

The TS native staff are now refusing to shift to Amaravati by June-end. Various TS employees associations have come out in support of these Class-IV employees. They have met Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao to recall them on humanitarian grounds since they took active part in the T-movement, risking their jobs in undivided AP. The Class-IV employees are alleging that the officials and staff in AP Secretariat are harassing them because they fought for Telangana statehood and they cannot work anymore for AP in Amaravati. “If this is the attitude towards TS staff in AP Secretariat located in Hyderabad, one can imagine how difficult it would be for us to work and survive in Amaravati,” said A. Padma Chary, president, Telangana Udyogula Sangham.