Two States to Share 56,000 of 84,000 State Staff

Express News Service
Hyderabad, March 6:

  The officials of Department of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (DoPT) headed by retired IAS officer CR Kamalnathan today held preliminary discussions with Chief Secretary PK Mohanty on the allocation of state level employees to both Telangana and the residuary Andhra Pradesh.
  The Kamalnathan committee was constituted to allocate the state-level officers working in the State government, which excludes All India Service (AIS) officers. The allocation of AIS will be decided by another committee.
  DoPT joint secretary Archana Varma, director State Reorganisation division of DoPT Kimbuong Kipgen, under secretary Sarangadhar Nayak and other officials called on the Chief Secretary along with Kamalnathan.
 "This is a preliminary round of talks. On how to apply the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014 in allocating the state level officers," an officer told Express after the meeting.
  According to preliminary estimates, the sanctioned strength of state-level officers was around 84,000 and the employees to be allocated was around 56,000. However, the exact number could be arrived after the 15 sub-committees, constituted for division process, submitted their reports on assets, liabilities and cadre strength. They would likely to submit their reports by the end of March.
  The final report would submitted to Kamalanathan committee, which will decide the matter as per the guidelines of the Central government committees, sources said.
  "The DoPT officials today discussed about the Reorganisation modalities, allocation of employees and the special situations in Andhra Pradesh and also the experience of division process in three other States," the sources said.
 According to sources, the cadre strength of all departments was available with the Finance Department. But, the accurate figures can be arrived only after the sub-committees submitted their reports.
The 84,000 employees of state-level were included Police department, the sources said.
   The SR Division of the DoPT is entrusted with the responsibility of allocation of the State government employees of state cadre, who have all state transfer liability.
   The Reorganisation Act only provide for the brief outlines and fundamental principles of reorganisation. So, it was necessary to work out the modalities and frame the detailed guidelines to carry out the reorganisation process. That was why Kamalnathan committee was constituted, sources said.
   The DoPT says that the broad principle of allocation of State cadre employees which inter alia include allocation first by ‘option’, followed by ‘domicile’ (Home District) and lastly by inclusion of ‘junior most’ personnel in the reverse order of seniority.
  If the number of posts allocated to a successor State is more than the total number of ‘optees’ and ‘domicile’ (home district), in order to fill up the balance posts, the employees lower down in the seniority position in the cadre are considered for allocation even against their options.
  Option once exercised by the employees is not reversible. Keeping in view the resentment expressed by the employees who were allocated on domicile and juniority basis against their willingness, several exceptions were made to the guidelines to facilitate certain class of employees to be allocated to the States of their option, the DoPT sources said.

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