No law change needed for local status: Centre

HYDERABAD: Allaying the fears of thousands of employees working for the Andhra Pradesh government but based in Hyderabad, the Union law ministry has clarified that their children can be accorded ‘local’ status without having to amend Section 371D of the Presidential Order of 1975.
In a communique to AP chief secretary IYR Krishna Rao, the law ministry pointed out that ‘local’ status can be accorded to the children of employees working in Hyderabad by a mere presidential assent.
In light of this development, the AP government is preparing a resolution which will be tabled before the state cabinet in Vijayawada on August 29. The resolution, once cleared by the state cabinet, will be sent to the Centre for approval by the president. The president, however, would have to officially seek the opinion of the Union law ministry before giving his consent.
Thousands of employees working in Hyderabad have been worried about the academic future of their children once they move to Vijayawada. Hyderabad and Vijayawada fall under different zones and people from one zone are ‘non-local’ in the other. Under the existing law, the children of government employees from Hyderabad will become ‘non-local’ once they move to Vijayawada as part of the official transfer. As a result, they would lose out on education and jobs.
“Now, we have received legal opinion that there is no need to go for an amendment to Article 371D to get exemption on the ‘local’ status. The cabinet will pass a resolution and the same will be submitted to the president,” Krishna Rao told TOI.
The AP government had sent a circular to all employees seeking details of their children and their education to figure out how many students need exemption. If the students have already completed 10+2, they will be treated as ‘local’ of Hyderabad.
The government clarified that children who are studying in classes between VII and X would be required to get exemption as the ‘local’ status is decided based on seven years of study -- of which four years should be consecutive in the said zone.
“Once we receive feedback from the employees, we will know how many students require the exemption and accordingly we will request the President to give exemption to these students as a special case in view of the state bifurcation,” said a senior official in the government. The chief secretary is in touch with Union home and law ministry officials, who assured that the exemption request would be processed expeditiously.
As per KS Jawahar Reddy Committee, which has been mandated to prepare a plan to shift government employees and offices to Vijayawada, more than 22,000 employees need to be shifted.