The impleading petition filed by Andhra Pradesh Secretariat Employees’ Association president K Venkatrami Reddy in the high court defending the shifting of the executive capital from Amaravati to Visakhapatnam is learnt to have created a ruckus among the employees.
While the employees have no option but to follow the government’s directions with regard to shifting to any capital region, Reddy reportedly incurred the wrath of the employees for blatantly commenting against the farmers of Amaravati and defending the government’s arguments in the court.
Many employees said the union has no business to implead in the case, unless the high court asks it to do so.
“Why should we make comments against the agitation by the Amaravati farmers? Let the court decide on the matter and it is for the government to follow. When we, as the state government employees, can’t comment against the government, why should we comment in favour of the government’s decisions?” a Secretariat employee questioned.
Venkatrami Reddy, however, said he had to file the impleading petition in the court only because Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi dragged the union’s name by raising the issues discussed internally.
“Our association’s name was unnecessarily quoted in the petition. That is why we had to implead in the case,” he said.
The union leader said they had asked the government to give the employees sufficient time to move to the new capital, if the bill was enacted.
“We asked the government to see that the academic year is not disturbed and nobody should be forced to shift to the new capital immediately,” he said.
Stating that the employees had nothing to do with politics, Reddy said he was not in favour of any particular political party.
“We filed an affidavit in the court only explaining the factual position as a counter to the petition filed by the Amaravati Parirakshana Samithi,” he asserted.
