HYDERABAD: IAS officers involved in the shifting of capital city from Hyderabad to Amaravati opine that it may continue till March 2017.
“Though the process of shifting begins on June 27, it will continue till next March, as the entire process involves shifting of all departments in the secretariat, besides moving of all the heads of departments (HoDs), which are not part of the secretariat. HoDs shifting will continue till October whereas shifting of departments in the secretariat will continue till December and further,” a senior official told Express.
The reason for their view is that Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu had recently asked some of the senior IAS officers to not vacate their residential quarters in Hyderabad in a hurry. Instead, they should shuttle between Hyderabad and Vijayawada for the time-being, by keeping their families in Hyderabad itself, Naidu reportedly advised them.
“Don’t vacate your quarters here immediately. Like me, all of you keep your families in Hyderabad itself. So that you can keep shuttling between Hyderabad and Vijayawada, based on the administrative necessities,” Naidu was quoted as saying.
Following Naidu’s directive, many of the IAS officers, in turn, told their staff in Hyderabad not to shift their families to Amaravati, right now.
“Only those staffers, who have already taken rented houses in the new capital region are shifting their families to Amaravati. Rest of the employees seek to relocate their families to the new capital after completion of the current academic year, as there are enough indications that the shifting process will be a long-drawn affair,” an employee said. There is also an interesting rumour within the official circles on the reason behind Naidu’s persistent efforts to shift at least some of the departments to Amaravati region at the earliest.
“As farmers in the capital region are worrying about non-commencement of the construction of capital city project, by planning to run a temporary secretariat from Velagapudi, the Chief Minister appears to have decided to placate these farmers,” an officer said.
“Moreover, as the government has already decided to procure another 5,571 acres of land from farmers in and around the seed capital area for the project, it is of the view that partial relocation of ‘seat of power’ to Amaravati would persuade defiant farmers in the adjacent villages of Tullur to surrender their land for the new capital,” he added.