Nizamabad: Contract supervisors want permanent jobs

Nizamabad: Employees, who have been working as supervisors and child development officers on contract basis at ICDS for about two and a half decades, were pinning hopes on regularisation of their service.

The then government had conducted written test in 2014 to regularisethe services of contract supervisors of grade-2 in the undivided Andhra Pradesh State. But contractsupervisor grade-2 of Nizamabad, Nalgonda, Medak, Mahabubnagar, Rangareddy and Hyderabad districts had approached court seeking service regularisation without the need to appear for supervisor grade-2 written test. With this, the services of 160 contract supervisors of zone-VI have not been regularised.

In Adilabad, Karimnagar, Warangal and Khammam districts, 163 candidates had appeared for the test of service regularisation of supervisor grade-2 examinationand except that of 11 officials, service of the remaining was regularised. These 11 officials were rejected for entering their hall ticket number wrong.

At present, 160 contract supervisor zone-VI, 11 contract supervisors and another CDPO were waiting for regularization of their services on regular basis as per government orders. These supervisors are not a financial burden to the State Government as ICDS projects have been running with the Central government's funds.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Raohas to give a green signal for the regularisation, for which the officials are eagerly waiting as they lost four years of service and salaries.

After the formation of Telangana State, the CM decided for regularisation of contract employees of all departments with GO MS No 16 Fin 26-02-2016. In pursuance of these orders, Women and Child Welfare Department had submitted proposals to the government for regularisation of contract supervisors as a grade-2supervisors.

Contract employment system was introduced in ICDS in 1998 by the then Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. 42 CDPOs and 325 supervisors were appointed during Chandrababu Naidu's regime on three-year contract. Chandrababu Naidu sacked all of them in February 2004 to set up outsourcing system with the intention of curtailing the employment rights inherited from the contract system. After Congress came to power in May 2004, YS Rajasekhara Reddy chose ICDS as his top priority to rectify Chandrababu Naidu's misguided policies.

The then Chief Minister Dr YSR had ordered to fill 287 supervisor posts of ICDS in Andhra Pradesh on contract basis with eligible Anganwadi workers during 2006. Accordingly, the government had filled about 900 supervisor posts on contract basis in the said projects duly following the reservation rules and also conducted written test on merit basis. The selected supervisors had continued till 2014. After that, the then CM N Kiran Kumar Reddy ordered to conduct written test for those working on contract basis to regularise them as supervisors grade-2, means zonal cadre post.