Telangana effect in Central Excise
A brief peep into the problem: Telangana region consists of predominantly backward areas of Andhra Pradesh, but includes the hi-tech capital city Hyderabad. For the last forty years, there have been periodical agitations demanding a separate state of Telangana. But over the years, the rich farmers from Andhra area have invested heavily in Hyderabad and made the price of land in Hyderabad costlier than in New York and they are not ready to part with the happening city.
A former Telugu Desam leader K. Chandra Sekhar some time back floated a new party, Telangana RashtraSamiti to create a new state of Telangana. In the last general elections, he aligned with the Congress and was rewarded with a few seats including four in the LokSabha, which enabled him to become a union cabinet minister. When every one was prepared to write him off as a spent force, Chandra Sekhar resigned from the union cabinet and LokSabha and sought re election. He was recently re elected with a thumping majority, proving that Telangana sentiment is intact.
Incidentally there is a state government order by which state government employees have to be posted within their regions. In violation of this, many Andhra officers are working in Telangana and the agitators want them to be sent back.
What has all this to do with DDT?
Well, in Andhra Pradesh Customs and Excise, there are two Chief Commissioners, one in Hyderabad and the other in Vizag. The Hyderabad Chief Commissioner has jurisdiction in the Telangana districts and the Vizag Chief Commissioner is for the rest of the state. While Vizag has more Commissionerates and Revenue, it is short of officers as most of the officers want to work in Hyderabad only. Officers are by force sent to Vizag with a promise to be brought back within a year and for the last 15 years or so there is an annual transfer of hundreds of officers to and from Hyderabad.
This year, the Administration transferred about seventy Inspectors to Vizag and this is the point at which the Telangana leader entered the scene. It seems Mr. Chandra Sekhar has written a letter to minister of State for finance (revenue) S.S. Palanimanickam to stop the transfer of 70-odd officers of Central Excise and Customs from the Telangana region to Visakhapatnam.
He didn't stop there but also demanded the repatriation of about 1,200 Andhra officers working in Telangana region.
It seems the transfer order is in hold.