AP CS begins process of shifting staff to Amaravati

• Instead of individual members, entire departments will be relocated
• Secretaries feel Eluru and Mangalagiri, too, can house some wings

Hyderabad/Guntur: A meeting of secretaries and heads of the departments with Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary I Y R Krishna Rao on Thursday decided that all departments and staff of the State administration should be shifted from Hyderabad to Vijayawada by June, 2016.

Krishna Rao will hold another round of meeting to finalise the modalities for shifting of various departments with the Road Map Committee consisting of officials from different departments.

According to sources, a general consensus on shifting of the administration from here has been arrived at. Some of the secretaries felt that instead of taking individuals from the staff on the issue of shifting it would be better if a decision on shifting of entire department in one go was taken. If individual opinion is sought, some may agree and some may not, the secretaries felt. Hence it has now been decided to take department-wise decision. This, they said, will speed up shifting and also the process will be smooth.

The secretaries also felt that since locating offices in Vijayawada is proving to be costly affair, some offices can be located in Eluru (West Godavari), which is just an hour’s travel from Vijayawada and some offices can be shifted to Mangalagiri and Guntur and adjacent localities.

The State government is contemplating to shift offices of Municipal Administration including its directorate, Commissionerate of Agriculture, Horticulture, Sericulture and Marketing offices to Guntur. Besides the offices of schools education,

college education and higher education office of the Human Resource Development Ministry, including the Intermediate Board and regional office of Andhra Bank, will be shifted to Managalagiri area. Several buildings in the Amaravati road and inner ring road area are also being considered for offices and also quarters for officials.