The allocation of State-cadre employees between the power utilities of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana continues to remain a contentious issue between the two States although the D.M. Dharmadhikari one-man committee appointed by the Supreme Court prepares to wind up its exercise, going on for about three years now.
After finalising the modalities for allocation of the employees after a series of meeting with the officials and representatives of employees’ associations from the two States, Mr. Dharmadhikari recommended absorption of 613 employees by the AP utilities and 504 by Telangana utilities based on the options exercised by them after the committee gave an opportunity for the same. They are among the 1,157 employees relieved by Telangana utilities on the basis of their nativity in July 2015.
Further, the committee had also agreed to examine the cases of another 265 employees working in AP, who had opted to work in Telangana in the second opportunity given by the committee for options, by going through their service registers in the presence of representatives of the two sides. “The AP utilities have made the problem more complex now by refusing to absorb the 613 employees and in addition allotting the 265 employees to Telangana unilaterally in November, against the directions of the one-man committee,” chairman of the Telangana Electricity Employees Joint Action Committee N. Sivaji pointed out.
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The committee is scheduled to hold its last meeting here on December 14 and 15 after the AP utilities got the schedule, fixed for November 2 and 3 at Vijayawada, cancelled for making the “final allocation” of employees. “Respecting the apex court appointed committee’s view, the Telangana utilities have agreed to absorb 504 employees in spite of the opposition from the employees associations to settle the issue amicably. But, the AP utilities appear to be not in favour of an early solution,” a senior executive of Telangana Transco stated.
Meanwhile, the Telangana electricity employees associations had separate meetings on Friday stating that they would oppose any move either by AP utilities or by the one-man committee that would harm their interests further. “Based on nativity (home district) the AP utilities are supposed to absorb all the 1,157 employees with AP-nativity. The AP utilities’ unilateral action of allocating 265 more employees to Telangana will not only harm the interests of Telangana employees but will be an additional financial burden on Telangana utilities,” TEEJAC leaders Sharif, Arogyarani and Vinod said.