Hyderabad: It will be ten years since the bifurcation of the Andhra Pradesh on June 2 this year. Among the contentious issues between the two states has been the distribution of employees based on their population ratio at 58:42 between AP and Telangana. However, there are still around 500 Telangana employees working in AP who are yet to be repatriated to their native place.
After the allocation of cadres as per the population ratio, there were not enough posts left vacant in Telangana to accommodate its native cadre, due to which they were allocated to AP.
“We had argued that it was a historic division of the state and not a mechanical one like in Jharkhand or Chhattisgarh states when they were carved out. Even the recommendations of the Kamalanathan Committee constituted for sharing of employees too had worked based on the earlier guidelines, which were discriminatory towards Telangana cadre,” recalls G Devi Prasad, former president of TNGO (Telangana Non-Gazetted Officers) Union.
He told Siasat.com that several representations were made to the Union home ministry and the department of personnel and training during the previous BRS government to consider ‘nativity’ as the factor to allocate Telangana cadres, and to issue separate orders for allocation of employees, but nothing had transpired.
“While the native Telangana cadres who had opted to work here were posted in AP, the employees of AP were able to get allocated to Telangana by proving themselves as native to Telangana by furnishing study certificates with continuation of school education in Telangana. There were many cases where we checked whether the student had studied here, but those schools (private) were already shut down. We had urged the former chief secretary to file cheating cases against those employees,” Devi Prasad says, pointing out that there are presently 4,000 to 5,000 employees from AP (including the heads of departments and those working in the secretariat), who have managed to work around the rules.
He, however, mentions that at this juncture there was no demand to send them back. He points out that such violations were recorded under 74 heads of departments.
The good news did come a little late in 2021 when around 700 Class III and IV employees from Telangana were allocated back to their home state after the government created supernumerary posts to accommodate them. Even the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government which was friendly with the then BRS government, had agreed to relieve the employees.
These employees were mostly working on clerical posts, such as junior assistants, senior assistants, drivers, record assistants, lift operators, cashiers, and others who were recruited on compassionate grounds.
Though part of the problem was resolved, still hundreds of Telangana employees continue to live and work in AP, eagerly waiting to be repatriated to their home state.
“If the chief minister and the cabinet decide to create more supernumerary posts, all the remaining Telangana cadres could be allocated here, after getting a nod from the AP government. Some employees have died, and the remaining cadres have been calling us informing us about their plight and helplessness,” Ch Vittal, former TGO (Telangana Gazetted Officers) Union leader and former member of TSPSC told Siasat.com.
With chief minister A Revanth Reddy preparing to have a cabinet meeting on Saturday to discuss many issues including the common assets and distribution of cadres between AP and Telangana, Telangana cadre languishing in AP are expecting their homecoming to happen better late than never.
| 
