Puttaparthi town, identified as the headquarters for the proposed district of Sri Sathya Sai, is witnessing a flurry of activity with several government offices being set up to house the new district administration.
Residents are worried that the town, home to Prashanti Nilayam and famed for its atmosphere of serenity and spirituality, will lose its charm once the new district administration begins functioning, due to the thousands of people who would converge on the new headquarters daily to get their work done.
The streets around Sri Sathya Sai Baba’s ashram are narrow, and with the influx of people, the town will begin to witness congestion as well as a rise in noise and air pollution, feel locals.
District officials have been told that orders regarding the appointment of staff at Puttaparthi will be done through transfer orders, and have been told to keep their infrastructure, such as laptops and computers, ready so that by March 31 everything is functional and on track to meet the April 2 deadline for the formal launch of the new districts across the State.
One block of Sai Mirpuri College of Music, which was built in 2000, has been vacated, and around 20 offices, including that of the District Collector and Joint Collector, have been housed in the building on different floors. Renovation of the Collector’s office and other officers’ chambers is still on. While classes will continue in the other two blocks of Sri Sathya Sai Insitute of Higher Learning, the middle block will house all the key offices. The Rural Water Supply Department and other welfare departments are being housed in small rooms, which has left employees worried.
Transport office
The District Transport Commissioners have been redesignated as District Transport Officers and the office to be set up at Puttaparthi will cater to the entire new district, leaving its well-established Hinudupur office with an RTO as its in-charge. Hindupur area has 3 lakh registered vehicles, and they all visit that office, while Puttaparthi and its surrounding mandals have only 30,000 registered vehicles. Locals feel it is ironic that the main office would be shifted to a place where there are fewer vehicles to serve.
While all officials posted at Puttaparthi have been asked to carry their tables and computers from Anantapur, many new computers and furniture will still be needed, they say.
