Telangana Cabinet sub-committee on GO 317 submits report to CM

Telangana Cabinet sub-committee members, Health Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha and Industries and IT minister D. Sridhar Babu, with Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: By Arrangement

The Telangana Cabinet sub-committee on GO 317 related to allocation of jobs and transfers, submitted its report to Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Sunday (October 20, 2024).

The panel, chaired by Health Minister C. Damodar Raja Narasimha and having Industries and IT Minister D. Sridhar Babu and Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar as members, worked on preparing the report for the last three months after consulting the affected groups, including teachers’ unions and intellectuals. Grievances from government employees were also received through email.

However, the government has not yet revealed the recommendations and what the committee has suggested to it. The CM is likely to discuss it with other Cabinet colleagues and senior officials before accepting the suggestions to find a solution to critical issues related to local cadre status.

GO 317 has been a contentious one related to local status with employees demanding the government to scrap it as it did a lot of injustice to employees in transfers as well as new employment.

The GO was issued in December 2021 by the previous BRS government introducing zonal system in the allocation of jobs. The new zonal system was formulated after new districts were created in Telangana taking them from 10 to 33 districts.

The objection of the employees, particularly teachers, against GO 317 was that junior-most employees were getting their choice of posts while senior employees were shifted to far off places as the order recognised the local status on new districts created rather than the old districts from where they pursued their education.

Apart from teachers, the tribals also opposed the GO as they argued that it would dilute the protection given to the tribals under the Constitution. They claim the GO does not specify Adivasi agency area-specific allotment of cadre.