The untold story of AP’s failing village secretariats
The People's Pulse research team conducted an extensive ground-level survey across Andhra Pradesh, covering villages and wards from Ichchapuram in the north to Tada in the south, to assess the functioning of the village-ward secretariat system. The findings, drawn from direct interactions with staff, officials, elected representatives, and citizens, form the basis of this analysis.
In the summer of 2019, when the village-ward secretariat system (VWSS) was launched on Gandhi Jayanti, the promise was nothing short of transformative. Rooted in Gandhi’s enduring vision of Gram Swaraj—self-reliant, self-governing villages as the soul of India’s democracy—the initiative sought to shatter decades of centralised, top-down administration. By placing multi-departmental staff and community volunteers at every doorstep, it aimed to deliver welfare schemes in a transparent manner, resolve grievances swiftly and make governance truly accountable to gram sabhas and elected panchayati raj representatives. For millions in rural and urban Andhra Pradesh, especially the poor, landless, and marginalised, this was not just an administrative reform but a pledge of dignity, inclusion, and justice.
The original blueprint was comprehensive and well-intentioned. Inspired partly by Kerala's panchayati raj model, it envisioned 14 functionaries per secretariat—including a school headmaster and multipurpose development officer—though eventually limited to eleven. Volunteers, who were paid a modest monthly honorarium of Rs 5, 000, acted as the vital bridge: delivering pensions in cash to homes, collecting applications, raising awareness about schemes, and maintaining close rapport with families. Funds from central schemes like the 14th Finance Commission grants and MGNREGA were earmarked for infrastructure, while panchayati raj Institutions were to gain control over the 29 functions listed in the Constitution's Eleventh Schedule.
Departments ranging from revenue to agriculture, and animal husbandry to health were to operate under PRI oversight, with gram sabhas serving as the supreme decision-making forums.
Approximately, six years later, this ambitious framework stands at a critical crossroads. Our field survey, conducted from December 2025 to January 2026, reveals a system that has drifted far from its foundational goals.
What began with immense public hope has steadily eroded into inefficiency, disillusionment, and operational paralysis.
Decentralisation has remained largely superficial. Secretariats frequently function as parallel structures to panchayati raj Institutions, marginalizing elected sarpanches and ward members. Political leaders across parties express growing apathy, feeling sidelined in a system where they lack direct supervisory authority. Mayors, municipal chairpersons, and village sarpanches often ask: Where do we fit in this system? Government orders mandating secretariat staff attendance at gram sabhas and involvement in annual and five-year development plans are rarely followed in practice, leaving elected representatives disconnected from implementation.
The human cost is stark. With over 1.10 lakh employees post-regularisation, many holding master’s degrees in social work or even PhDs feel profoundly underutilized. Assigned to mismatched duties such as photographing school toilets or geo-tagging wine shops, they describe themselves as being treated like subordinates rather than skilled professionals. The abrupt abolition of the volunteer system in 2024 shifted critical responsibilities—doorstep pension delivery, data collection, scheme awareness—onto an already overburdened staff. Weekly workloads routinely exceed 48 hours, compounded by facial recognition attendance glitches in remote areas that trigger fears of salary deductions. Endless surveys—United Family Card updates, biometric verifications, eKYC, family migration tracking, all consume time and energy, leaving core services neglected. We have many overseers but no real guides, staff confided, pointing to harassment from line officers and political interference that further erodes autonomy.
This relentless pressure has triggered a mental health crisis. Around 10 suicides or sudden deaths among secretariat employees in 2025 have been linked to depression, insomnia and chronic stress. Women police assistants demand structured roles, exemption from night duties, and promotion channels to junior assistant pay scales. Surveyors seek modern equipment to perform tasks effectively. Engineering assistants juggle multiple departments, facing suspensions and memos for quality lapses. Welfare secretaries, with expertise in scheme design and gap-filling, are diverted to unrelated surveys, delaying genuine welfare delivery.
Citizens suffer the most visible consequences. The promised 72-hour resolution timeline has become aspirational at best. Secretariats increasingly resemble mere application-collection points rather than problem-solving hubs. Rural residents report persistent delays in getting certificates, land surveys, subsidies and schemebenefits, forcing them to escalate grievances to district collectorates or the Chief Minister's Praja Darbar.
In tribal agency areas like Peddalabudu village—adopted by Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu—irregular staff attendance, unused infrastructure (including a Rs 15-lakh library lies idle), and poor connectivity compound the sense of abandonment. The volunteer gap is acutely felt- pensions once delivered at home now require arduous office visits, eroding public trust and convenience.
Financially, the system has become a white elephant. Annual expenditures on salaries, allowances, and maintenance run into thousands of crores, yet measurable outcomes remain disappointing. Rationalization efforts—categorizing panchayats by population—are progressing, but surplus staff, such as excess surveyors, need thoughtful redeployment. Skill audits to map qualifications against vacancies in departments like PWD, revenue or social welfare, coupled with targeted training for role transitions, offer a viable path forward without resorting to layoffs or voluntary retirement schemes.
The drift stems from foundational weaknesses: absence of pilot testing, inadequate coordination mechanisms, and reactive post-2024 changes without holistic alternatives.
Our recommendations call for urgent, depoliticized action. Form a high-level committee, chaired by a retired chief secretary, with all-party, employee union, and civil society representation to deliver a time-boundreport.
Integrate secretariats fully with panchayati raj institutions for joint accountability to gram sabhas. Adopt an integrated survey approach using OTP-verified family data to reduce redundancy. Appoint dedicated education assistants for school oversight. Provide uniform office infrastructure with basic amenities. Customize setups in tribal areas. Revive limited, neutrally recruited volunteers. Rationalise staffing through population-based clusters and redeploy surpluses inter-departmentally.
Address employee demands, including flexible hours, confidential mental health counselling, promotion channels, updated equipment, and safety protocols.
Revitalizing this system is not merely an administrative necessity—it is essential for the State’s rural economy and social justice. By embracing evidence-based, inclusive reforms, the state can reclaim Gram Swaraj's promise of empowered villages, transparent welfare, and dignified lives for every citizen.
As Gandhi reminded us, true independence begins at the grassroots. It is time Andhra Pradesh recommits to that enduring vision.
(The writer is a political analyst and Director of People’s Pulse Research Organisation)
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