Introduced in 2019 by the then Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government, Volunteer System is a decentralised governance mechanism to oversee the welfare of households across the state. It entrusted the responsibility of disbursing social security pensions and other welfare schemes of the government to 50 households per volunteer. The previous government recruited around 2.5 lakh such volunteers with a paltry honorarium of Rs 5000 per month.
Though the volunteer system initially received flak from all quarters and despite a lot of hue and cry from the then opposition parties, the decision of Jagan’s government yielded good results because it helped effective roll out of various welfare schemes at the doorsteps of the public. Even though Naidu and Pawan Kalyan targeted the volunteers several times, they tried to woo them before the elections by promising to continue the volunteer system with a hike in the salary to Rs 10000.
As the NDA alliance retained huge majority in the recent elections, the focus now shifts to the implementation of poll promises. Volunteers across the state are eagerly waiting for a formal announcement from the government about retention of their jobs with the promised salary. Unfortunately, neither Chandra Babu Naidu nor Pawan Kalyan made any statement on volunteer system so far after coming to power. Moreover, they received a big shock after the recent cabinet meeting.
Yesterday, cabinet minister for Information and Public Relations of Andhra Pradesh, Kolusu Parthasarti stated that the government is planning to disburse pensions to all eligible people from July 1st and this will be done through the employees of village secretariat system ( Grama Sachivalayam). This announcement came as a big shocker to volunteers because they were expecting some good news from the government ahead of July 1st pension disbursement.
With the decision taken by the cabinet, volunteers are now in a dilemma whether they will be retained by the government or not. Moreover, the government will need to pass a GO to extend the volunteer system as the existing order passed by the previous government expires in August this year.
Amidst this scenario, the fate of the existing 1.5 lakh volunteers hangs in balance as there is a lot uncertainty whether the system will continue to be in force or not in the aftermath of the cabinet decisions. It is a known fact that nearly 1 lakh volunteers were forced to resign just before the elections to campaign for the YSRCP after the ECI debarred them from taking part in electioneering as per model code of conduct.
Many are hoping that the government might offer the volunteers an alternate employment if at all the system is abolished.
