Telangana staff bitter over job extension to seniors

HYDERABAD: The Telangana state government, in the last four years, has extended the service of 402 officials who had reached their superannuation and this has not gone down well with the staff as it hampered promotions. Those whose service have been extended held top positions like chief engineer, commissioner, chief planner and so on. Some of the government orders of service extension had been issued without putting it in the public domain. The reason for extending their services was to continue to utilise their expertise in the projects nearing completion.

In an RTI response, the Government of Telangana Finance Department, informed that from June 2, 2014 to June 30, 2018, 402 officials who have reached their superannuation have been re-appointed into service. The departments that saw maximum extension of officers are from TS Portal Panchayat Raj and Rural Development headed by Cabinet Minister Mr. Jupally Krishna Rao, Irrigation and Command Area development, the portfolio of TS irrigation minister T. Harish Rao, followed by departments like revenue which is headed by deputy chief minister Md. Mohamood Ali, Home, N. Narsimha Reddy and general administration department headed by the Chief Minister Chandrasekar Rao.A public interest litigation was filed in the High Court against the TS government.  Extension of service is given at the discretion of the government and the PIL alleged that it was done based on recommendations by the top guns in the political fraternity.  K. Shyam Sunder, TS panchayat raj civil engineers forum – Hyderabad, said, “After bifurcation, the TS government made re-appointments on contract basis/agreement/re-employment basis, and deprived those who were supposed to get promotions. Officers who retired from service after attaining the age of superannuation of 58 years have been reappointed through back door method.”