Bifurcation blues: now, it’s a struggle for office space

April 27, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:51 am IST

Ten months after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, the struggle between officers of two States for office accommodation continues.

Recently, the employees of Telangana refused to allow the Engineer-in-Chief of the Tribal Welfare Department of Andhra Pradesh to occupy his office chamber on the fifth floor of Samkshema Bhavan as it was allotted to the Scheduled Castes Corporation of Telangana. The matter became an inter-State controversy with the Principal Secretary of Tribal Welfare of AP, A. Vidyasagar, shooting off a letter to his Telangana counterpart to resolve the issue at the earliest. He said the AP government would not have any objection if the Engineer-in-Chief was accommodated in any other chamber on the fifth floor if the employees remained adamant.

Inadequate security

in IAS territory?

The IAS officers colony at Punjagutta has been in the news for the wrong reasons for the last couple of months. Last month, it hit the headlines for the ‘suicide’ of a chartered accountancy student, Pujitha, and more recently for the theft of a Ganesh idol from the house of a senior IAS officer.

A total of 45 IAS officers of both States have been allotted quarters in the colony while a few IPS officials also reside here. However, recent incidents have brought in a lot of discomfort amongst the bureaucrats, who complain of inadequate security in the supposedly high security colony.

The officials complained that not enough is being done to upgrade security even after two incidents that took place.

No Anglo-Indian for

AP Assembly

The Anglo-Indian community in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana rejoiced at the opportunity of having two of its representatives in the legislatures representing the two States after bifurcation. But their joy appears to have been nipped in the bud as Andhra Pradesh failed to ensure the selection of a nominated MLA from the community even ten months into the division of the State. In contrast, the Telangana government was quick to identify and nominate a member for the vacant seat months ago. This was in spite of the government faltering in the process of selection of the candidate. The community raked up a controversy that the candidate was not acceptable to it. The government quickly replaced him with another candidate and got his name cleared by the Governor.

Complaint against

IAS officers

The Commissioners of the undivided Andhra Pradesh Information Commission created a flutter last week complaining to Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan that some IAS officers deliberately tried to water down the Right to Information Act.

They highlighted that they were humiliated by Collectors when they toured districts to enquire into RTI applications.

They sought the intervention of the Governor to protect their rights. Interestingly, the delegation of Commissioners included a former IAS officer Jannat Hussain and a former IPS officer M. Ratan. While acknowledging that there were officers of high integrity among civil servants, they targeted a Special Chief Secretary of Andhra Pradesh government and the Chittoor Collector.

Tough days ahead for

Sheila Bhide panel

Belying all expectations, the Central government has turned down the request of the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana governments to extend the deadline for the committee headed by retired IAS officer Sheila Bhide to bifurcate the State Public Sector Undertakings listed under Schedule 9 of the AP Reorganisation Act.

The governments expected that the Centre would concede the request because the term of the C.R. Kamalanathan committee to divide officers between the two States was already extended. The committee of Ms. Bhide has a huge task at hand as it was mandated to divide 89 PSUs but work was completed in respect of only 18. Various departments controlling the PSUs approached the two governments with a request to take steps to extend the deadline because the audit to separate assets and liabilities of the undertakings between the States was not completed.

The governments promptly took the matter to the notice of the Centre.

Reporting by Y. Mallikarjun, Asif Yar Khan, Ravi Reddy and N. Rahul

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