The AP govt has in principle decided to shift a few departments to the new capital city
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Hyderabad: The orders of AP engineering-in-chief (irrigation administration) M.V. Ravi Kumar to prepare an assessment report to shift nine heads of department of the irrigation department to Vijayawada created a flutter among the over 550 staff and engineers working here, who, on Tuesday, threatened a pen-down strike if orders were not rescinded.
The AP government has in principle decided to shift a few departments to the new capital city region at Vijayawada in phases in tune with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu's announcement that his office will start functioning from there from June.
Irrigation minister Devineni Uma Maheswara Rao has already started working from Vijayawada and has even converted the Vijayawada local irrigation office into his camp office. Following these developments, the engineering-in-chief (administration) issued orders to nine heads of departments functioning in Hyderabad to make an assessment on the modalities of shifting their offices to Vijayawada.
This has upset the over-550 technical (engineers) and non-technical staff working here who immediately gave a call for a pen-down strike from Wednesday against the unilateral decision.
However, Mr Rao immediately intervened and informed association leaders that he would hold talks on Wednesday and resolve the issue. Irrigation Employees Association leader Siva Sankaraiah told this newspaper, “We will discuss the matter with the minister and then take a decision on the strike.”
When contacted, Mr Ravi Kumar said there were no shifting orders for the staff so far and the orders issued were intended to get an assessment from the heads of departments, which was well within his rights. “It is only an assessment, nothing else; no decision has been taken to shift the staff,” he said.
The move, however, was severely criticised by the staff who said that they could not move to Vijayawada at present due to several reasons which the government still had not addressed as promised.
( Source : dc )
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