AP Govt Announces Service Reforms for Swarna Gramam, Swarna Ward Employees

The Andhra Pradesh government is taking steps to address the practical problems and legitimate demands of Swarna Gramam and Swarna Ward secretariat employees, State Social Welfare Minister Dola Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy said on Monday.

Speaking to the media at the Secretariat, the minister said the previous government had appointed around 1.23 lakh employees in village and ward secretariats but failed to take adequate steps regarding their service rules. After the coalition government assumed office, a Cabinet Sub-Committee headed by the Deputy Chief Minister was constituted to examine their concerns and work out solutions, he said.

The minister said 14,331 employees across 18 cadres have already received promotions, while the Municipal Administration Department is working to promote more than 800 additional employees. The government has also decided to implement the Automatic Advancement Scheme for Record Assistant cadre employees, despite an additional financial burden of around Rs 150 crore.

To ease difficulties in obtaining leave, the government has introduced a dedicated portal. If the concerned authority fails to act on a leave application within 24 hours, a casual leave request will be treated as automatically approved, the minister said.

Reacting to the protest held by around 2,000 secretariat employees in Vijayawada on Sunday, the minister said staging a demonstration without government permission was inappropriate. He expressed regret over the death of a police inspector who suffered a fatal health incident while on duty during the protest. He also criticised social media posts allegedly mocking the incident and warned against making indiscriminate remarks against the government and its leaders.

On GO MS No. 11, the minister clarified that employees were expected to perform duties assigned to them according to administrative requirements. He said the order was not intended to impose an additional burden on employees.

Department Secretary Katamneni Bhaskar said around 1.23 lakh employees had been recruited in 2019-20 on a consolidated remuneration of Rs 15,000 per month. Following probation and eligibility checks, employees were brought under regular pay scales.

The government has agreed to extend the Automatic Advancement Scheme to around 1.14 lakh eligible employees who have completed six years in the same post. GO No. 7 was issued on September 21 for this purpose.

Bhaskar said promotion guidelines for Engineering Assistant and Welfare Assistant cadres would be prepared within three weeks. District-level committees have also been formed to address workload-related concerns, while 121 compassionate appointments have been provided so far.

On the demand for a Junior Assistant cadre, Bhaskar said existing rules do not permit a separate cadre upgrade, even though eligible employees may reach the Junior Assistant pay scale through the advancement scheme.