Village, ward Sectt staff plan long leave for exams

Srikakulam: With village and ward secretariat staff of various wings are going on long leave for preparation of Group-1 and Group-2 services examinations, ground level work is getting affected.

At village and ward secretariats, welfare, digital, engineering, survey, agricultural, horticulture, veterinary assistants and woman police are working. Most of the staff are under the age group between 25 to 35 years and have technical qualifications like Engineering, Management, Law, Teacher Training, B.ED, Commerce, Agricultural, Horticulture, Veterinary degrees and diplomas.

The NDA government in the state has entrusted sufficient work to secretariat staff like survey of roads, lands, agricultural activities, beneficiaries’ identification for welfare schemes, completion of housing works, identification of government lands, pension distribution and delivery of other welfare schemes at the door-step of the eligible persons.

As a result, work pressure increased for secretariat staff when compared with the previous YSRCP government and they are looking for alternatives and also better avenues.

Meanwhile, the state government announced the schedule for teachers’ recruitment (DSC), Group-1 and Group-2 services examinations. To try their luck, secretariat staff are planning to write different competitive exams and are applying for long leave of four or six months and leave for Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Gunturu and Tirupathi where coaching centres are located. For the leave, they are citing fake reasons like ill-health of parents, etc.,

But in view of work pressure and government priorities, mandal and district level officials are not willing to sanction leaves to the secretariat staff as work is being affected at ground level. In some cases, the secretariat staff are putting pressure on the officials concerned like mandal parishad development officers (MPDO), chief executive officer (CEO) of zilla parishad, district level officers of panchayath raj, agriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry and other wings for leaves through the ministers, MPs and MLAs. This is causing a suffocating situation to the officials.