New zonal system: Govt begins process to reshuffle 2.5 lakh staff

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has taken up a mammoth exercise to reshuffle nearly 2.50 lakh employees as per the new zonal system in the state. According to employee's union leaders, this could trigger a severe backlash as the guidelines framed by the government were not employee-friendly.

The restructuring of the employees' cadre strength is to be done at the district, zonal and multi-zonal level in all 33 districts. These employees were selected under the old zonal system in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. The General Administration Department (GAD) in an order issued on Monday said that persons holding posts belonging to the erstwhile district, zonal and multi-zonal cadres shall indicate their preferences for allotment to the new districts, zonal and multi-zonal in the application form.

Officials said that the major challenge before the government would be to finalise the allotment of the posts to the employees in the new districts. For instance, if an employee, who belongs to Rangareddy district and working in Warangal, requests the government to post him in his native district as the zonal system provides 95 per cent employment to the locals may find it difficult to get the posting as the person who is already working in that position in RR district may not be willing to vacate.

If the government transfers him, he may go to court challenging the government order. This could lead to more of litigation, said A Padma Chary, honorary Chairman of the Telangana Udyogula Sangham.

He feels that the government had taken a wrong decision to reshuffle and redistribute more than 2.50 lakh employees under the new zonal system. The employees wonder why the government was restructuring all the employees who have been selected under the old zonal system. The unions, they said had expected that the government would introduce the new zonal system only for the new employees and the available excess staff will be distributed in the newly formed 23 districts. The other challenge before the government is the reshuffling of the officials selected in the district cadre. More than 1.50 lakh employees are working in the district cadre posts. After the reorganisation of the districts, it will not be possible to accommodate all of them in their native district where the cadre strength is low and the workforce is high.

For instance, most of the employees in the old Warangal district have been selected from Warangal and Hanamkonda districts which have been created as new districts in 2016. Now, it is impossible to shift them to their native districts in view of the low number of posts under the new zonal system.