: The pangs of shifting of Darbar from Hyderabad to Velagapudi, where the temporary Secretariat is under construction, are becoming increasingly palpable among Andhra Pradesh Secretariat employees.
Restive over the fast-approaching June 27 deadline to shift from Hyderabad and no roadmap yet on the actual process of shifting and host of unresolved issues pertaining to accommodation, school admissions, groups of employees, including women, staged a sit-in in front of Chief Secretary S.P. Tucker’s chambers here on Friday.
Mr. Tucker, however managed to cool their frayed nerves and told them that offices of Head of Departments will move by June 27 as the temporary Secretariat is not yet ready. A majority of Secretariat employees will move as and when the blocks under construction at Velagapudi are completed. But those employees who have already rented houses and got their children admitted in schools in Vijayawada and Guntur, will also move by June 27. They will be assigned work either in the Chief Minister’s Office or other government departments in and around Vijayawada and Guntur.
“The principle is all of us are moving as directed by the Chief Minister.
Help desk
HoDs and a section of Secretariat staff will be the first to move by June 27 and the rest of Secretariat wings in phases in July, August and September,” he told The Hindu .
Giving the issue top priority, Mr. Tucker would sit down with employees from Saturday to understand their genuine concerns. A help desk will be set up in front of the Chief Secretary’s office where individual employees can represent their specific grievances — exorbitant rents for houses, difficulty in securing school admissions, local status of students moving to Andhra Pradesh from Hyderabad. “This will be an important month for us to address the grievances. We also called for a meeting of L&T officials to get an idea about exact timelines to moving to various blocks in the temporary Secretariat,” he said. The government, on its part, directed the Joint Collectors and District Education Officers to facilitate employees in finding suitable housing and school admissions for their children. “If some schools are demanding donations or refusing admissions, we will look into it. Of 400 women who will be moving to Velagapudi, some asked for shared accommodation and the Guntur Joint Collector has already been told to find suitable accommodation,” Mr. Tucker said.
We also called for a meet of L&T officials to seek clarity on exact timelines
S.P. Tucker
Chief Secretary
