VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu is contemplating revamping the village/ward secretariat system to make it stronger and more effective, so people benefit at large.
On Monday, during a review meeting with senior officials of the Grama Sachivalayams and Ward Sachivalayams (GSWS) department at his residence, the Chief Minister underlined the importance of the village and ward secretariats to render services to the people and become a bridge between the people and the State government.
In the first meeting on the reorganisation of the department, a presentation was made about its structure and services. The meeting focused on the ways the services could be improved and entrusting more work to its staff in a regularised fashion. The needs of the staff and facilities for them were also discussed at length.
The Chief Minister opined that the unequal job burden among the staff of the GSWS department is improper and stressed the need for corrections by providing equal and balanced work. Staff adjustment and training as per the requirements of the government were also discussed in the meeting.
At present, there are 13,291 village panchayats, but only 11,162 village secretariats. Across the State, there are a total of 15,004 village/ward secretariats employing a total of 1,19,803 staff.
Including other related departments, the total staff in GSWS is 1,27,175, of which 95,533 are working in the village and 31,592 are working in the ward secretariats.
Among these employees, 50,284 (39.54%) are in the age group of 18-27 years, and 54,774 (43.07%) are in the age group of 28-37 years. Among the village/ward secretariat staff, some have done their PG, PhD, and professional courses like engineering and medicine. As much as 14% of these employees have completed professional and vocational courses.
The State government, in subsequent meetings on the reorganisation of the GSWS department, will fine-tune and take necessary decisions.
