Vijayasai Reddy urges centre to set up Central Administrative Tribunal in Visakhapatnam

YSR Congress Party Rajya Sabha member Vijayasai Reddy on Tuesday appealed to the Union Law Minister to set up a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) bench in Visakhapatnam, the administrative capital of Andhra Pradesh, during the Rajya Sabha Zero Hour discussion. Vijayasai Reddy said a Central Administrative Tribunal Bench would be set up in each state under Article 323(A) of the Constitution to resolve disputes and grievances arising in the service affairs of Central Government employees. He said that unfortunately no such tribunal had been set up in Andhra Pradesh till now after the bifurcation of the state.

Andhra Pradesh currently has over 50,000 Central Government employees. About 60 per cent of them are working in Visakhapatnam. But as there is no CAT bench in the state, the petitioners are coming to Hyderabad traveling a long distance, to resolve their disputes. He brought to the notice of the House that the employees are facing a lot of inconvenience due to costly journeys.

In Visakhapatnam, thousands of employees are employed in various public sector companies such as Steel Plant, Shipyard, Customs, Port, Dredging Corporation, Railways, Airport, HPCL and LIC. Therefore, for the convenience of the employees, Vijayasai Reddy appealed to the Minister of Law to set up a CAT Bench with the Chairman and members in Visakhapatnam.