VIJAYAWADA: The State government is contemplating revamping the village/ward secretariat system. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is said to have directed officials to focus on utilising the services of all the employees working in the secretariats effectively after learning that the previous YSRC regime failed to make proper use of human resources.
Informing that the government will continue the existing setup of village/ward secretariats, sources revealed that though 11 and 10 employees are working in each village and ward secretariat, some are found to be bearing the workload, while others do not have enough work.
Against this backdrop, the Chief Minister is said to have suggested the officials to continue those having work with the secretariats and to allot other staff to the departments they have been designated originally. As per the planning, which is at preliminary stage, it has been proposed to continue VROs, ANMs, women protection secretaries, digital assistants and welfare secretaries with the village secretariats. Panchayat secretaries will be allocated to Gram Panchayats.
Similarly, admin education assistants, welfare secretaries, sanitation secretaries, ANMs and women protection secretaries will remain with the ward secretariats and other staff will be allocated to the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department. Engineering, agriculture, horticulture, village surveyor assistant and animal husbandry assistants will be allocated to their respective parent departments.
It is learnt that the TDP-led NDA government is planning to group every 5,000 population as one cluster to extend hassle-free services to them.
Village/Ward Secretariat Employees Federation State president Md Jani Pasha felt that the reported move to revamp of the secretariat system will benefit the staff both professionally and financially.
1.26 lakh staff in secretariats
About 1.26 lakh employees are working in 10,960 village and 4,044 ward secretariats in the State