This Supreme Court judgment, delivered 35 years ago, was ignored by eight successive governments in Andhra Pradesh. And despite the current Congress government’s assurance to implement it by June-end, the methodology adopted does not suggest it will happen.
The judgment in question relates to the repatriation of non-Telangana government employees  as they had been recruited in violation of a Presidential Order that safeguarded the interests of people of Telangana in government employment.
In 1972, the Supreme Court ordered that 28,000 non-local employees, who were recruited in Telangana should be repatriated. According to official statistics, this number increased to 59,000 in 1985. But not a single employee was repatriated.
Government Order 610 was issued in 1985 stating that 80 per cent of posts should go to local persons and 20 per cent to both locals and non-locals. The order was implemented in the Rayalaseema region in 1995 without much opposition.
In Telegana, the Y S Rajasekhara Reddy government has agreed to implement it but in the last week, it issued a GO (399) that modified 610. Following protests from Telangana people, it issued yet another GO, no 415 to amend GO 399. “This is a fraud being played upon Telangana people,” said Prof Keshav Rao Jadhav, a strong votary of a separate Telangana state.
“It clear they don’t want to send back anybody,” he said.
Contesting the figure of 4,000 –5,000 employees who will be repatriated, Prof Jadhav said it was “laughable.” According to him, there are at least two lakh non-local employees who should be repatriated. He believes the Chief Minister is not sincere when he says repatriation will be completed by this month-end. “This tamasha will go on till the 2009 elections,” he said.
TRS protests
The Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) has taken up daily protests to pressurise the government on this issue. On Tuesday, its activists held a protest wearing flowers behind their ears to show that the government was hoodwinking the people of Telangana. On Wednesday, they burnt copies of GOs 399 and 415. The TRS has planned a gherao of the Assembly on July 2 if 610 is not implemented in toto.
TRS leader K Chandrashekhar Rao termed the government’s “backhanded” methods to defeat the spirit of GO 610 as a “betrayal of Telangana” by the Congress which came to power promising to do justice to Telangana.
‘Parochial move’
However, the move to repatriate non-locals who mostly belong to coastal Andhra region is being resisted. It is being argued that an unhealthy emotional divide would be created, that administration would be disrupted and that “law and order” problems would arise since most repatriations will happen in the police  department. Schools would suffer since education is yet another department with the most number of non-local employees. The coastal leaders have threatened to launch an agitation since transfer of employees on “parochial grounds”.
Telangana votaries point out that last week seven Congress MLAs from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions resigned from the House Committee formed to oversee the implementation of GO 610 alleging that Telangana MLAs were insulting and humiliating them. Telangana votaries believe this was only to stall the implementation of the GO 610.
Colonisation
Prof Jadhav points out the people of Telangana were denied their rights for 41 years and GO 610 was brought about to ensure justice to the Telangana people. “The issue of Telangana no longer is of regional imbalances or uneven development.
It is internal colonisation where the resources of Telangana are being plundered and the self respect of the people destroyed,” he said.