Hurdles cleared for shifting of AP staff

New Delhi: Union Home Ministry on Friday issued the much-awaited gazette notification amending the provisions of the Educational Institutions Regulation Act to allow students migrating to Andhra Pradesh due to bifurcation of the State to seek local candidate status.

This was one of the hurdles all the while that led to confusion among the AP employees moving over to AP following the decision of the AP Government to complete the shifting of the capital from Hyderabad to Amaravati. Various employees unions were pressing for the amendment to the existing provisions so that their children would not lose out in case of shifting to AP from Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana.

The order stated thus: "Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-paragraph (1) or (2), candidates of Andhra Pradesh Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions) Order - who migrate to any part of the State of Andhra Pradesh from the State of Telangana within a period of three years from the 2nd day of June 2014 shall be regarded as the local candidate in the State of Andhra Pradesh at the place of his residence and be treated at par with the local candidates residing in that area, in accordance with such guidelines as may be issued by the Government of Andhra Pradesh for the purpose of employment.”

The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet had made the decision to give local status to the children of people hailing from Andhra Pradesh and working in Telangana without any conditions if they returned to their native land by June 2017 as it did not want the nativity issue to hang fire forever.

Official sources then said the Cabinet decision was aimed at all categories of people, not government employees alone. The trigger for the decision, they explained, was an incident in which a person in West Godavari attempted suicide as his daughter had been denied an opportunity of recruitment by the DSC on the grounds that she was not a local candidate, having studied in Telangana.

As per the Cabinet decision, students who move to the Andhra Pradesh capital after the 2017 deadline will not get automatic local candidate status unless they study for four consecutive years there, they said.

Local status is the main issue weighing with employees on the question of shifting to Andhra Pradesh as they fear that their children will be treated as non-local in Andhra Pradesh, which would adversely affect their chances of admission to desired educational institutions and access to government employment.

The Government offered to address the issue by requesting the Centre to amend the Presidential Order to give local status to children of employees moving to AP as a fallout of bifurcation.

It had earlier also issued a circular inviting employees to indicate whether they wanted special local status for their children in AP or wanted to retain their local status in Telangana.

It is estimated that 40 per cent of government employees who have children currently pursuing higher education in Hyderabad would prefer to retain their local candidate status in Telangana.

However, some employees who are required to move to the temporary capital of Amaravati but have children pursuing professional courses in Hyderabad were in a fix. They wanted the Government to make a provision for such candidates to get local status in Andhra Pradesh.

The gazette notification puts to rest all doubts and speculation and helps the employees facing this problem to move over without any hesitation now to AP. This order comes into force at once.