Telangana state to face staff crunch

HYDERABAD: A severe shortage of staff is staring at the new State of Telangana which will come into existence on June 2. The bifurcation process is expected to create about 15,000 vacancies in government posts and immediate recruitments will be needed to tide over the crisis.

There is growing demand that the new government will have to take immediate steps to fill the feeder category posts to avoid crisis in the administration.

According to an estimate by the employees' unions, there are about 15,000 employees belonging to Seemandhra region working against the nativity rules and they have to be sent back.

The union leaders say that thousands of employees of Seemandhra are working on deputation basis irregularly in the Secretariat and in directorates.

With their return to native districts, the vacancies will arise in large numbers and they need to be filled up urgently. The employees' unions suggested that it would be better to give promotions to the eligible Telangana employees to fill up officers' posts.

Some leaders also feel that it would be better to extend retirement age limit. Telangana NGO's Union Secretariat branch president B Sravan Kumar Reddy said that in Secretariat about 200 Telangana assistant section officers have to be promoted to fill the assistant secretary and deputy secretary posts.

He said that a majority of ASOs are eligible for promotions and they could be promoted to section officers and the section officers, in turn, can promoted to assistant secretary posts.

Sravan said that the new government should recruit assistant section officers immediately. He alleged that some Seemandhra employees were spreading canards about the shortage to force the government to retain them here. Sravan said that they would oppose any such moves.

In directorates, it is estimated that about 5,000 employees of Seemandhra are working on deputations and they have to be sent back. The government has to make recruitments at the level of junior assistants to facilitate promotions to the eligible employees to officer posts, leaders of Telangana employees' unions argue.

However, there is still no clarity from the government about the exact nature of the shortage and the numbers. Since government did not issue guidelines to decide the nativity issue, division of the employees between two States and returning them to native places has remained an unsolved question so far.

The Union Home Ministry is likely to take a decision on the guidelines in the first week of April to complete allocation of employees. The guidelines would tell how many have to return to native districts and the strategy to be adopted in Telangana to fill up vacant posts.