Tempers fray as staff is split

The tentative bifurcation of Secretariat employees between AP and TS, done by the Kamalnathan Committee on Saturday, resulted in a flaring up of regional passions and protests from TS employees against allocation of AP native staff to TS.

As many as 60 Andhra-native Section Officers and 17 Assistant Section Officers secured postings in TS in the tentative allocation.

The committee has given 15-days to lodge objections, if any, on this. However, TS employees claimed that this process was only an eyewash and they would figure in the final allocation list.

TS employees demanded the TS government avoid giving posting to AP native employees in TS.

After bifurcation, the Centre issued “orders to serve” to Secretariat staff to work in AP and TS Secretariats till division of staff was done.

In this, 87 AP-native SOs got postings in TS while 67 TS-native ASOs got posting in AP. Out of 87 AP-native SOs, 67 secured postings in TS in the tentative allocation. While TS-native ASOs working for AP opted for TS and secured postings, an additional 17 AP-native ASOs also secured postings in TS.

A majority of the employees working in the Secretariat in undivided AP hailed

Telangana movement was all about jobs, water and funds. If AP native people continue to take away our jobs, what is the point in having Telangana

— A. PADMA CHARY TS Secretariat Employees Association president.

from Seemandhra region.

With this, the Kamalnathan Committee was forced to allocate them to TS, since there are no sufficient vacancies in AP to accommodate them all, while TS has vacancies due to poor representation of TS-native employees.

The employees were bifurcated in the ratio of population of 52:48 between AP and TS. Options were also taken from employees, wherein AP native employees sought postings in TS on spouse and medical grounds.

“If there are no vacancies in AP for their staff, the AP government should create super-numery posts and accommodate them,” said A. Padma Chary, TS Secretariat Employees Association president.

However, his AP counterpart U. Murali Krishna, denied these charges and said the allocation was made as per provisions of the AP Reorganisation Act. “If there are any violations of the Act, they have the choice to challenge it in court,” he said.