Employees lament ­shifting to Vijayawada

While chief minister Chandrababu Naidu is keen on developing the residual State of Andhra Pradesh, government employees working at the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat are in a quandary over shifting to Vijayawada at this stage.

The AP government has decided to shift all revenue-earning departments to Vijayawada to speed up the process. It has already identified excise, commercial taxes, endowments, mining, transport, and stamps and registration departments for the first phase of shifting. Accordingly, heads of departments were directed to identify the staff which would have to relocate to Vijayawada. However, government employees are insisting that shifting in the middle of the academic year is not justified.

"During our earlier discussions with the government, it was said that the shifting would be planned after March 2015. The government should first create infrastructure for the employees and then plan the shifting," APNGOs president Paruchuri Ashok Babu said.

The same view was echoed by others. "It would be a big problem to immediately shift some departments to Vijayawada. If they do so, they will have to relocate again when the new capital comes up. All this is not feasible," said Bopparaju Venkateswarlu, president, AP Revenue Services Association.

The employees of the five revenue-earning departments are to be provided temporary office space at Medha Towers in Gannavaram and Nagarjuna University buildings near Guntur. Opposing the move, the employees say the distance between the two places is more than 30 kilometers and that there is no public transport.

"The AP government has to take note of the cost of living in a remote place and the expenditure for daily transport in case the offices are located in the outskirts of Gannavaram and Guntur," G Ramakrishna, former president of AP Secretariat Employees Association, said.

What is irking over 50,000 employees working in Hyderabad is the lack of education and health facilities in Gannavaram and Nagarjuna University campus. They have to travel to either Vijayawada or Guntur to get quality services. And with hardly any urban life and recreation in these areas, employees are not in a mood to shift their families to the temporary capital.

The TDP regime is also facing a piquant situation on the revenue generating front, specifically the collection of sales tax, commercial tax, value added tax, service and various types of duties and cess. Due to all the enforcement and vigilance staff being located in Hyderabad, it has become a big problem to check tax evasion and hoarding as well as supervise tax collection. Conversely, people from the coastal districts are reluctant to visit Hyderabad to procure sand or mining lease.

In the meantime, employees of the stamps and registration and commercial taxes departments located in Hyderabad practically have no work. "We will overcome all the hurdles," is all the government sources could claim when asked about the twin issues of relocation of employees to Vijayawada and the loopholes in revenue collection.