VELAGAPUDI (GUNTUR): The secretariat women employees found the new capital quite inhospitable to work and lead a safe life. A group of 100 women employees in different cadres right from typist to joint secretary, deputy secretary and additional secretary currently working at the secretariat in Hyderabad visited the interim secretariat under construction at Velagapudi under the aegis of the Andhra Pradesh Secretariat Women Employees Welfare Association on a fact-finding mission over the claims of the government with regard to the progress of the secretariat construction and basic needs for the employees to work and live in the area. Upon their arrival from Hyderabad in two hi-tech air-conditioned buses, Guntur Joint Collector Cherukuri Sridhar received the women employees while the fellow women from Velagapudi and Mandadam villages welcomed them heartily.
Satya Sulochana, who led the team, told TOI that she was not able to imagine life as a single woman in her 40s in the hinterlands of new capital region after spending most of her life in Hyderabad. “I have an octogenarian mother to take care, besides two sons, studying in intermediate and class X. I feel uprooted if I happen to come out of Hyderabad”, he said. Yet she said she was ready to honour the government’s decision to shift to the new secretariat in the interest of people at large. “But there appears no basic minimum needs such as access to school or college and hospital there is no accommodation facilities. In a nutshell, the area is not safe for women,” she added.
Kona Hemalatha, a section officer in the General Administration Department (GAD), expressed doubts over the claims of municipal minister P. Narayana over completing the secretariat construction work by June 15. When the second block with two floors is proposed to house the secretariat, the slab work for the first floor is completed so for. Given the pace of the progress, it is unlikely that the task is finished in the next two months”, Hemalatha said. There was no power, no water supply even yet, she added. “As secretariat employees, we need to stay back at our workplaces till late in the night and the environs around give an impression that the area is no safe for women”, she worried. It is better the AP government run its secretariat from Hyderabad itself by exercising the State’s right to use Hyderabad as a combined capital for 10 years until the new capital comes up with all the facilities, she contended.
Vydhurya K, a section officer, department of public enterprises, said house rents in the capital villages were literally out of reach for middle class employees. The house owners demanded Rs 15,000 for a 2BHK house with two months advance in Mandadam village, when the same 2BHK house is available for Rs 8,000-Rs 10,000 in Hyderabad with access to transport, hospitals and schools, she said. “I am used to city life in Hyderabad all these days. I will find it tough to get on in this rural setting”, Vydurya commented.
The government has offered special casual leaves for three days from May 15 to 30 to the women employees to search for houses and ideal schools and colleges for admission of their children in the new capital area before their shifting.
“I am sure, employees cannot live in the villages adjacent to the interim capital for want of minimum needs. So also, they cannot shuttle between Guntur and Velagapudi for 80km up and down daily. Except Vijayawada, there is no other town equipped with schools, colleges and hospitals which is close to the new secretariat”, commented another woman employee.