Secretariat staff squabble turns out to be storm in a tea cup

Two days before the formal division of Andhra Pradesh, a dispute over the possession of the AP Secretariat Association office in H-block threatened to disrupt peace but employees’ associations took the initiative to defuse the row.

Trouble brewed when A. Padmachari, general secretary of AP Secretariat Association (APSA) and a Telangana employee, held a meeting with his supporters and put up a banner of Telangana Secretariat Udyog Bhavan and pasted pictures of TRS president K. Chandrasekhar Rao inside the premises, thus staking claim over the association office.

Notwithstanding the allocation of H-block to AP Secretariat along with J, K and L blocks, Mr. Padmachari demanded that the APSA premises and assets be divided between the two Secretariats. Caught unawares, APSA president U. Muralikrishna confronted Mr. Padmachary about the forceful occupation which was not raised either in the executive committee or in the recently held general body meeting on April 27.

As the news spread, agitated Seemandhra and Telangana employees rushed to the premises condemning the high-handed behaviour of some employees with an intention to vitiate the atmosphere. Before the situation could get out of control, police personnel mediated.

However, by afternoon, the incident turned out to be a storm in a teacup with other registered Telangana employees’ associations, including NGOs, TGOs and Telanangana Secretariat Employees’ Association (TSEA), all registered unions with their own offices, resolving the stalemate. They held a meeting and decided to leave the premises to APSA as it was earmarked to it.

M. Narender Rao, founder and president, TSEA, said that though APSA was a common association for both Andhra and Telangana employees, separate Telangana associations with their own offices had come into being during the Telangana movement. And now, with the division of the State, they had decided to let it remain with APSA.

The meeting resolved to give a respectable position to Mr. Padmachari in TSEA after Telangana comes into existence on June 2. Though the State is being divided, there is no animosity between Telangana and Seemandhra employees, Mr. Narender Rao asserted.