During the campaign in the recently-held assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu announced that if his party came to power, he would continue the village/ward volunteers’ system with increased remuneration of Rs 10,000 per month.
However, Naidu did not explicitly mention that he would retain the existing volunteers, nor did he say that these volunteers would be sacked. He merely appealed to volunteers not to follow the YSR Congress Party line and act as party workers.
Many village/ward volunteers, who were predominantly YSRCP workers recruited at the recommendation of local party leaders, resigned from their jobs to work for the party in the elections, after being assured that they would be retained with a higher salary if the TDP won.
With the YSRCP suffering a significant defeat, these volunteers are now in a difficult position. Those who resigned from their jobs to work for the YSRCP are submitting memorandums to TDP leaders and ministers, claiming that they made a mistake and were forced to resign under pressure from YSRCP leaders.
For the volunteers who did not resign and are still on the rolls, there is considerable uncertainty, as they effectively worked for the YSRCP when Jagan Mohan Reddy was in power. Although they have not been sacked, there is no assurance that they will be retained.
Adding to the confusion, the Naidu government announced that the door-to-door distribution of pensions on July 1 and 2 would be handled by employees of village/ward secretariats, not volunteers. This announcement has created panic among the existing volunteers.
In this context, a public interest litigation petition was filed in the state high court, which heard arguments on Wednesday, seeking the retrenchment of all existing village/ward volunteers.
The petitioner alleged that these volunteers were YSRCP workers who had actively participated in YSRCP activities and contended that the government had not followed the rule of reservation in their appointments.
Sources indicate that under these circumstances, the Naidu government may initiate fresh recruitment of village and ward volunteers for implementing its welfare schemes.
It will be interesting to see whether Naidu will follow Jagan's approach of appointing only TDP workers as volunteers or will prioritize qualifications and merit.
