Nearly four lakh employees of the Andhra Pradesh government, who are silently ruing the government’s decision to shift the administrative capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam, are likely to get larger benefits if they moved to the new capital.
The high-power committee constituted by the Jagan Mohan Reddy government met at Vijayawada on Friday came out with a series of incentives to lure the employees to Visakhapatnam.
“The state government employees are the primary and important stakeholders whose interests have to be protected while shifting the capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam. The incentives will be brought to the notice of the chief minister for consideration,” the committee said.
Here are the incentives:
*Each employee would be allotted 200 square yards of house site at Visakhapatnam at a nominal rate even before they are shifted, unlike in the past.
*The house sites would be given approved designs by the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority and would be given exemption from paying stamp duty for registration.
*Each employee would be given a special house building allowance (HBA) of Rs 25 lakh for the construction of news houses, apart from what they had already got at Amaravati.
*The employees would continue to get 30 per cent House Rent Allowance as they are getting in Amaravati, besides an additional 10 per cent in the City Compensatory Allowance in Visakhapatnam due to high cost of living.
*Spouses of employees would also be given top priority for transfer to Visakhapatnam.
*The employees would be given residential accommodation till they construct own houses. While bachelors would get rent-free accommodation, those with families would be get double bedroom flats at a subsidised rent of Rs 4,000 per month. Higher officials would be accommodated in three-bedroom flats at a rent of Rs 6,000 per month.
*They would also be paid allowance for shifting their families to Visakhapatna, ranging from Rs 50,000 each for Class IV employees to the maximum of Rs one lakh for gazetted employees.
*Five-day week facility will be continued for another three years
*The employees would get subsidised bus pass facility in the RTC buses in Visakhapatnam, besides 50 per cent concession in RTC bus fare from Visakhapatnam to their native places including Hyderabad, twice a month.
*Special superfast trains would be run for employees between Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam.
Clearance of all DA arrears, announcement of Pay Revision Commission, ensuring easy admission for children of employees in various schools and colleges in Visakhapatnam, provision of local status to the employees and extension of canteen and medical facilities are the other incentives offered to the employees.
