Govt clears promotion channels for Swarna ward employees

Amaravati: The State government has issued orders operationalising long-pending promotional channels for four categories of Swarna Ward Secretariat employees following the recent approval of the State Cabinet. The move is aimed at addressing promotional stagnation among employees recruited in 2019, many of whom have completed more than six years of service.

The order covers Ward Administrative Secretaries, Ward Data Processing Secretaries, Ward Sanitation & Environment Secretaries (Grade-II), and Ward Planning & Regulation Secretaries (Grade-II) working in Urban Local Bodies across the State.

As part of the cadre restructuring, the government has sanctioned 815 Junior Assistant posts by rationalising 915 surplus and vacant posts, comprising 458 Ward Amenities Secretary Grade-II posts and 457 Ward Planning & Regulation Secretary Grade-II posts.

The new posts will facilitate promotions for eligible Ward Administrative Secretaries, while vacancies arising in that cadre will create opportunities for Ward Data Processing Secretaries.

The government has also upgraded 815 posts each in Ward Sanitation & Environment Secretary and Ward Planning & Regulation Secretary cadres from Grade-II to Grade-I, creating 1,630 promotional positions.

The restructuring will utilise existing sanctioned posts without additional financial implications and will not displace any serving employee.

Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development Ponguru Narayana said the decision reflected the government’s commitment to addressing longstanding service-related concerns and providing employees with a clear career progression framework.

Principal Secretary S Suresh Kumar said the restructuring would strengthen the supervisory framework in sanitation, revenue administration, town planning and digital service delivery.

The government will also undertake training and capacity-building programmes for ward secretaries in consultation with the APHRD Institute, considering the growing use of AI and digital technologies in municipal governance.

The Chief Minister has suggested reviewing the nomenclature of ward secretariat employees to reflect their changed responsibilities and job profiles.

The government said ward-level functionaries play a crucial role in property tax administration, sanitation, building permissions, digital records, disaster response and other civic services.

Promotions for eligible Ward Welfare & Education Secretaries and Ward Amenities Secretaries will be considered after recommendations from the group of secretaries examining requirements in welfare and engineering departments.

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