Lotfollah Foruzandeh, the vice president for human resources, who is in charge of moving scheme, told reporters recently that 20,000 government employees have so far been moved out of Tehran to other provinces.
Last November, he said that 20,000 government employees had registered to move and 10,000 had actually moved. Now he says that 20,000 have actually moved. But he avoided saying if any more had volunteered to go.
Last November, he said the goal set by President Ahmadi-nejad was to move 200,000 civil servants out of Tehran by last Now Ruz. Ten percent is usually not rated a passing grade.
Last summer, the president had ordered that number to leave Tehran in five weeks. Wags said he easily succeeded as more than that number fled the city—but all returned at the end of their vacations.
The presidential order last fall was that all executive agencies move 40 percent of their personnel to cities outside of Tehran province by Now Ruz or in just four months.
Foruzandeh said that amounted to 200,000 civil servants who would have to move. With the average Iranian household containing 4.8 people, that would mean moving almost one million people out of the capital.
Foruzandeh did not say how it would be physically possible for moving vans to move that many families so quickly, let alone where they could be accommodated in the provinces so quickly.
The order was the latest in Ahmadi-nejad’s effort to reduce the population of the capital because it lies on an earthquake fault.
Ahmadi-nejad issued a degree in April 2010 saying 40 percent of government employees must leave the capital. Most people treated it like a joke and ignored the order. But Ahmadi-nejad came back to this theme time and time again.
The government has been offering incentives, such as low interest re-location loans and payroll bonuses, to encourage people to leave. The drop off suggests that most of those enticed by incentives signed on early and there are few others interested.
The government has never explained how a block of volunteers can move to another city and still work for an agency in Tehran. It has spoken of moving entire agencies to other cities, but it has also insisted that no one would be forced to move. Foruzandeh said that when an organization is relocated to the provinces, the employees will have five or six options so civil servants are not obligated to move with their agency.
Back in July of last year, Foruzandeh said that 106 state-owned firms had been ordered to leave Tehran lock, stock and barrel. Most are owned by the Oil Ministry or the Industries Ministry.
When first announced 16 months ago, Ahmadi-nejad emphasized the threat from earthquakes as the main reason for thinning out Tehran’s population. But last fall, he added other motivations.
With such a densely populated area, he said, people waste time, get stuck in traffic, suffer from air pollution, are forced to live in cramped apartments and just plain get nervous. Living costs are also higher and the water supply in the Tehran area is limited, he added.
“We cannot order people to evacuate the city,” he said. “But provisions have to be made.”
Ahmadi-nejad then gave detailed numbers on how many he wants moved. He said 5 million of the 12.3 million living in the province should go elsewhere. That is 40 percent.
Of the 8 million people in the city of Tehran, 3 million or 38 percent should go elsewhere. Of the 4.3 million living outside the city of Tehran but within the province of Tehran, 2 million or 47 percent should go. He didn’t explain why he wanted to get rid of a greater proportion of the people in the province than in the city.
Earthquake planners generally say the best way to address the earthquake threat would be to enforce building standards—shoring up existing buildings and mandating strict standards for new construction. They also point out that most other cities in Iran are also subject to earthquakes.
