The emergency approval by the state cabinet and overnight issuance of gazette notifications on the formation of 13 new districts by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government is believed to be a strategy to corner the state government employees who have been on the warpath on the pay revision issue.
Though the Jagan government has been doing exercise on the new districts for quite some time, the timing of the issuance of the gazette notification at a time when the employees’ unions served a notice for an indefinite strike from February 6 midnight has now become a hot topic for discussion.
State planning secretary Vijay Kumar made an interesting revelation while explaining the formation of new districts.
He said an official committee appointed by the state government was conducting an exercise on the reshuffle of the staff in tune with the new districts.
It means, the state government employees working at the district level would be redistributed among the newly formed districts as per the requirement.
Accordingly, the government would seek options from the employees working in different cadres as to which district they would be allotted.
The government will form district-level sub-committees to seek the options on their postings in the new districts.
“The exercise will commence on the same day when the employees are planning to go on indefinite strike,” sources said.
If the employees are firm on their strike, they would lose the opportunity for opting for the districts they want to be allotted.
“Since it is essential for them to opt for the posting in the district of their choice, they would have no choice but to drop out from the strike,” sources said.
However, the employee union leaders argue that the government cannot force the employees to give their options when they are on strike.
“When all the employees go into strike, who will do take up this exercise? The government will have to postpone the entire exercise,” they said.
At the same time, the strike will be a major embarrassment to the government which is planning to commence its budget session of the state assembly from February 14.
Since the Secretariat staff and assembly staff is also going to join the strike, the government will have a tough time.
