HYDERABAD: Government employees of all cadres working on ‘Order to Serve’ basis in new districts carved out during the districts reorganisation done in October 2016 in Telangana, are an unhappy lot.
All these employees were working in old district headquarters, including the collectorate, and in offices of over hundred different departments.
After each district was divided into two, three or four districts, staff in the old district was deputed for administrative purposes in the newly carved out districts.
At that time the staff was told that this was a stop gap arrangement for six months, after which the district administration will determine cadre strength and take necessary steps to meet staff requirements.
It’s almost one-and-a-half years now, but the ‘Order to Serve’ postings are still in effect. Nearly 30,000 employees, from fourth class to state cadre, and their families are facing hardships and inconvenience because of these postings.
“Employees with grown up children did not move their families to new districts because of children’s education. The family is staying at one place and the bread earner is staying on rent in the new district headquarters. Since these are temporary postings, employees were in two minds about shifting families as they were not sure when these orders would be cancelled. But their wait is continuing for the last one-and-a-half years,” an employees’ leader said.
The new postings also led to a dip in salaries to some extent since HRA (house rent allowance) component had fallen. While employees were getting around 20 per cent HRA in the old district, now they are given around 12 per cent only. Some employees are paying rent in two places - for the family in the old district and for the employee himself in the new district.
