Hyderabad: With a child certified as 72 per cent disabled, S.A. Raju, a native of Hyderabad posted as senior assistant at the polytechnic college in Nizamabad, is unable to return to the city for better treatment for his son.
He was transferred courtesy GO 317 brought in by the BRS government. The recent GO 244, which allows posting in local areas for employees with mentally challenged children does not cover those with physical disabilities.
Raju is among the 16,000 employees who claim that they have been denied their local status by GO 317. He points out that those recruited recently were given posting as per their nativity, and asks why employees like him could not be posted to the place they hail from.
“My son, who is in Class 10, was born without six ribs. He was operated on in 2009. There is no hospital like the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (Nims) in Nizamabad,” he said. Raju claimed that addressing the situation of GO 317 transferees would not entail a financial burden on the government, and there were vacant posts to accommodate them in their native places.
Reshma, 52, a health educator in the medical department, has an 80-year-old mother to care for at her home in Karimnagar. She has been posted to Bhupalpally, and told Deccan Chronicle that she travelled 240 km every day to office and home. “It has taken a toll on my health,” said Reshma, a former national-level shot put thrower.
“After putting in 32 years of service, my family is asking me to put in my papers and stay back home,” Reshma said. Her husband runs a business in Karimnagar. “There are vacancies for my post in Karimnagar and in places which are far closer. My zone was changed after GO 317 was brought in.”
A cross section of employees Deccan Chronicle spoke to said that the government had considered only medical, spouse and mutual issues while issuing GOs 243, 244, 245 respectively. The local status was central to their opposition to GO 317, an issue which was at the heart of the Telangana agitation, they said.
GO 317 looks only at seniority and neglects other criteria like length of service, local language and social background, as mandated in the Presidential Order, they said.
K. Padmavathi, 55, superintendent at the government polytechnic in Chegunta, says she was considered a junior after putting in 36 years of service at various institutions in Hyderabad and transferred.
“My ordeal to reach Chegunta by catching the 6 am train at Sitaphalmandi begins at 4 am. By the time I reach home it is between 9 pm and 10 pm. I even considered quitting the job but non-payment of benefits to retired employees is holding me back. With an EMI of `52,000 on a housing loan, I have to sell my house if I quit,” Padmavathi said.
Employees like her will be holding a protest at Dharna Chowk near Indira Park on Sunday to highlight their issues. “I still haven’t lost hope of a solution,” she said.
Speaking with Deccan Chronicle Boina Nageshwar Rao, working president, GO 317 Victim Employees and Teachers JAC said the most affected employees are in the medical, education and health departments.
Some employees said that the mutual transfer option given by GO 245 was being misused by those on the verge of retirement. They claimed that `10 lakh to `20 lakh was being sought from employees who are desperate to shift to their native places.
