Andhra Pradesh: Swarna Ward Staff Get Long-Awaited Promotion Channels
Many of the employees recruited in 2019 have completed more than six years of service without promotion: Reports
VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh government has activated the long-pending promotion channels for four categories of Swarna Ward Secretariat employees, providing a “structured career progression” to staff who have faced promotion-related stagnation for over six years.
The decision, approved by the state cabinet, covers ward administrative secretaries, ward data processing secretaries, ward sanitation & environment secretaries (Grade-II), and ward planning & regulation secretaries (Grade-II).
Many of the employees recruited in 2019 have completed more than six years of service without promotion.
As part of the cadre restructuring, the government has sanctioned 815 junior assistant posts by rationalising 915 surplus and vacant posts. These comprise 458 ward amenities secretary Grade-II posts and 457 ward planning & regulation secretary grade-II posts.
The newly created junior assistant posts will facilitate promotions for eligible ward administrative secretaries. Vacancies arising in that cadre will subsequently mean promotion opportunities for eligible ward data processing secretaries.
The government has also upgraded 815 posts each in the ward sanitation & environment secretary and ward planning & regulation secretary cadres from Grade-II to Grade-I, creating 1,630 promotional positions. “The restructuring will utilise existing sanctioned posts without additional financial implications and no serving employee will be displaced,” it was stated here.
Under the new structure, ward administrative secretaries can progress to junior assistant/junior accountant, senior assistant/senior accountant and higher supervisory posts. Ward data processing secretaries will move through the ward administrative secretary and junior assistant/junior accountant channels to senior assistant/senior accountant positions.
Ward sanitation & environment secretaries can progress from grade-II to grade-I and subsequently to health & sanitation assistant grade-II and the regular health & sanitation assistant cadre. Ward planning & regulation secretaries will have a pathway from grade-II to grade-I, followed by town planning building overseer grade-II and grade-I in the regular line.
Municipal administration minister Ponguru Narayana said the decision addressed longstanding service-related concerns and would strengthen urban administration. A clear career progression framework, he said, would improve employee motivation and accountability while helping improve municipal service delivery.
Principal secretary, MA&UD, Suresh Kumar, said the restructuring would strengthen supervision in sanitation, revenue administration, town planning and digital service delivery. He noted that despite the growing use of artificial intelligence and digital technologies, field verification, inspections, enforcement and citizen-facing services continued to require ‘accountable’ personnel.
Training: The government would also take up training and capacity-building programmes for ward secretaries in consultation with the APHRD Institute. The chief minister has suggested reviewing the names of ward Sachivalayam secretaries to reflect their changed responsibilities and job profiles.
Ward-level functionaries handle property tax administration, sanitation, building-permission monitoring, prevention of unauthorised constructions, digital records and municipal services. They also play key roles in census and election duties, disaster preparedness, cyclone and flood response, relief operations and restoration of civic infrastructure.
The government said promotion channels for ward welfare & education secretaries and ward amenities secretaries would be considered after recommendations from the group of secretaries examining staffing requirements in the welfare and engineering departments.