Visakhapatnam: Andhra Pradesh Girijan Cooperative Corporation (GCC) is currently operating with 882 vacant posts. It has faced operational challenges over the past three decades due to understaffing and lack of recruitment, details sourced under the Right to Information (RTI) Act have revealed.
Since 1991, there have been numerous retirements and voluntary departures. But no recruitments have been held, causing concern within the tribal community, which the corporation is expected to serve.
In 2014, GCC employed 900 individuals. Following the truncation of Andhra Pradesh, 468 employees remained with AP. Presently, the corporation has only 226 employees, with 882 vacancies.
There are eight vacancies for divisional managers, 15 senior managers, 16 junior managers, 65 senior assistants, 78 junior assistants, 28 heavy vehicle drivers, 31 light vehicle drivers, 409 salesmen, 209 office assistants, and three other posts.
A GCC employee, who prefers anonymity, told Deccan Chronicle that the corporation has ceased purchasing minor forest products, such as patala garida, naramamidi chekka, valiselu (oil seeds), gum karya, konda chipurulu, shikakaya, kunkudu kaya (soap nuts), vippa flower, honey, nalla jeedipikkalu, induga pikkalu (water purifier), adda leaves (used for making plates), turmeric, and rajma beans due to lack of salesmen to market them.
This has severely affected the livelihoods of tribal communities.
Currently, GCC employs only 22 regular and 156 contract salesmen, each managing two to three depots. Some GCC depots have even closed due to the unavailability of salesmen.
Additionally, long-serving regular employees have not been promoted.
Visakhapatnam is the headquarters of GCC, overseeing 156 depots in Parvathipuram and Srikakulam districts. Within GCC are Seethampet and Parvathipuram divisional work centres and five societies. Contract employees are operating all these entities.
Gadathuri Rajagopal, president of Andhra Pradesh Bharatiya Adivasi Samakhya, said, "The NDA alliance government must intervene and start recruitment immediately. Only this can restore GCC to its former glory."
An autonomous organisation, GCC is managed by a supervisory team comprising a managing director and a chairman-level officer. It conducts business transactions of Rs 500 crore annually.
