While state government is keen on shifting the government lock stock and barrel to the Velagapudi by June 15 at any cost, the government employees, who are well-settled in Hyderabad are trying to circumvent the June deadline one way or the other as it is beset by many problems.
These demands are being raised, with government accepting to some of their crucial demands.
Already, the employees have made it clear that shifting of their families to new capital Amaravati is not possible until the local status of their children is changed from Telangana to Andhra Pradesh. There have been reports that the file related to amendment of previous order is with union home minister and a final decision is expected anytime. Now the employees associations have put forth a new set of demands demands to compensate to the loss they would incur if they were to shift their families to temporary capital. This is with the hope that it would help postpone the whole exercise to a future date.
The employees are demanding financial incentives in the form of additional DA, displacement allowance to cope up with problems that arise in relocating themselves to Amaravati region and special incentives for two or three years as a compensation for the additional expenditure they would have to bear in the capital. The employees planning to convey these demands to the chief secretary in the next meeting of capital shifting.
According to U Muralikrishna, president, Andhra Pradesh, Secretariat Employees Association, these are not impracticable demands, on the other hand, they are reasonable and just given the difficulties in uprooting oneself from a place, you have been living for decades making it a permanent home. ” All our demands are just. The displacement allowance and other special incentives are meant to provide some cushion as the shifting is expected to throw up many unforeseen issues in the lives of employees,” Muralikrishna said.
So far the government has agreed to two crucial demands of the employees: the five-day week and 30 per cent HRA at Velagapudi.
The employees are worried that they have to live without families, till the permanent arrangements are made at Amaravarti which in their view would take two or three years. Separation from the family, they apprehend would affect the childrens’ education, marriages and social life. This fear of separation from the family is forcing them to devise strategies to postpone their shifting till permanent arrangement are made at Amaravati region, which is now not suitable to make permanent home. Infact none of them are opposed to shifting to new capital, provided their issues addressed.
” Majority of the employees will have to stay alone in the new capital in makeshift arrangements for at least three to four years leaving the families in Hyderabad. Many of the employees fall in the age group of 45 to 55 which require care from the family. The separation is bound to create a psychological maladjustment among those who can’t fit into the new surroundings,” Muralikrishna said.
