AP sets June deadline

Govt staff shifting

Hyderabad: A circular of General Administration Department (GAD) asking its staff to give their options by October 31 on shifting to Vijayawada created quite a stir among the employees.

The circular issued on Tuesday evening said that it intended to shift all its employees to Vijayawada shortly. As such, it has given three dates as options for a phase-wise shifting of the GAD staff from Hyderabad.

As part of the move, those willing to shift in the first phase will have to move to Vijayawada by the end of November 2015. Similarly, those intended to shift in the second phase will have to go to Vijayawada by the end of February 2016. And, all will have to shift to Vijayawada by June 1, 2016, the GO said.

For this, all GAD employees have been asked to give their options by filling a prescribed form and submit the same by October 31, 2015.

However, taking exception to this, AP Secretariat Employees Association president U Murali Krishna, Gazetted Officers Association leader K V Krishnaiah met Chief Secretary I Y R Krishna Rao and expressed their reservations on the move. After the meeting, Murali Krishna said the employees have requested the Chief Secretary to treat the entire Secretariat as one unit for shifting the staff from Hyderabad to Vijayawada.

He said the phase-wise shifting is not practical as the staff will have to shift along with their families. “We are ready to shift to Vijayawada by June. But, since it would be difficult to shift the families to next two to three years, the employees will have to bear the rentals at both the places. Hence we have requested the government to provide bachelor accommodation to the staff moving to Vijayawada, or provide a 10 per cent additional HRA,” he said.

Responding positively to the issues raised by the employees, the Chief Secretary has reportedly assured to hold a meeting with the employees on these issues on October 30.