The show goes on as employees grunt

Hyderabad: The fate of employees working on ‘Order to Serve’ seems to be neither here nor there with the State government continues to ignore their problems even after one-and-a-half year. The ‘Order to Serve’ is not just all forgoing transfers, HRAs and promotions etc., but it also pushed the employees in a corridor of uncertainty whether to shift their families to the relocated places or to stay back where they were.

When the government had issued ‘Order to Serve’ after it carved out 21 more new districts taking the total number to 31, the employees would have thought that they had to work with the designated district for three or a maximum of six months and not more than that. But it was not to be as they after one-and-a-half year still finds them where they were designated to work.

The government’s predicament is understandable especially against the backdrop of severe staff crunch it had carved out new districts.

In addition to this, it had to deal with infrastructural hiccups with majority of new district headquarters - Bhupalpally, Sircilla, Asifabad, Nirmal etc. – didn’t even had enough buildings to accommodate administrative setups and key officials, including Collectors and SPs. It took a lot of time for the new administrations to get going.

Finally, the dust has settled after a few months, however, the waiting of the employees who were expecting either transfers or getting back to their original destinations is still continuing.

The bone of contention of the employees is that they have been waiting for transfers for a long time.

In fact, the general transfers of employees had not taken since 2013. Some of those ineligible for transfers at that point of time have now completed eight to nine years waiting for their choice.

Speaking to The Hans India, TNGOs State President Karam Ravinder Reddy said: “What the government, while issuing Order to Serve, said was it could be a matter of a few months before the administration in new districts falls in place.

Now the employees started to feel restless over the uncertainty of their position, especially against the backdrop that a new academic year is not far away. They wanted the government to settle their issue with immediate effect.”

The other issue plaguing them was the house rent allowance (HRA). While issuing Order to Serve, the government also sent last pay certificates (LPCs) to relocated offices. This is what that had become an issue with employees started to raise hue and cry.

“Injustice has been meted out to employees in regard with the HRA which varies from place to place. Some of the employees who were hitherto used to receive higher HRA ranging between 20 to 30 per cent are now drawing as low as 10 per cent,” M Rajender, TNGO State General Secretary said. He said that they will think over future course of action if the government fails to react on the issues by April end.

Above all, the kind of traumatic experience the employees have to face while shuttling between workplace and settlement where their children’s education was going on, TNGO Karimnagar District President Jagadeeshwar said.

“There is an imperative need to fill the vacancies as all the employees are reeling under work pressure,” a class one officer who on condition of anonymity said, pointing out that the same number employees (before split of districts) have to bear the workload of newly created districts.

By Adepu Mahender