When the YSR Congress Party, led by former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, was in power, village and ward volunteers were highly influential in the gram panchayats and municipal wards.
These volunteers not only delivered government welfare schemes, such as pensions and ration supplies, directly to beneficiaries but also served the political interests of the YSRCP.
However, since the National Democratic Alliance, led by Telugu Desam Party President N. Chandrababu Naidu, came to power in the recent assembly elections, these volunteers have been left without work.
Out of approximately 2.60 lakh volunteers, more than a lakh either resigned or were sacked between March and May to work for the YSRCP during the elections, leaving about 1.53 lakh volunteers still on the rolls.
In the last two months, the Naidu government has not utilized their services for welfare schemes.
On July 1 and again on Thursday, the state government distributed pensions with the help of village/ward secretariat staff, sidelining the volunteers.
Interestingly, the volunteers who remain on the rolls have continued to receive their salaries for the past two months—May and June. The department prepared salary bills for July and submitted them to the government for approval.
This issue was discussed during a recent cabinet meeting, where Naidu expressed surprise that volunteers were being paid without work for the last two months.
Officials noted that the government was incurring a cost of nearly Rs 900 crore per annum for their salaries.
The cabinet decided to revamp the volunteer system, reducing the number of volunteers and setting a monthly remuneration of Rs 10,000.
Naidu suggested providing these volunteers with training in various skills and utilizing their services in different departments.
Given the state's financial situation, it remains to be seen how the Naidu government will manage the volunteer system.