Andhra Pradesh: Government staff threaten stir till salary GOs withdrawn

Vijayawada: The Government employees of Andhra Pradesh have threatened to go on strike to press for their demand for rollback of the Government Order (GO) relating to implementation of the Pay Revision Commission (PRC) recommendations.

The employees on Wednesday attended the offices wearing black badges while some protesters among teachers set fire to the copies of the GO.

Leaders of Andhra Pradesh Joint Action Committee (AP JAC) and AP JAC Amaravati, who met later in the day to chalk out future course of action, resolved that they will not accept the salaries as per the new GOs issued by the government on Monday. They said they would opt for the old salaries. As per new GOs each employee would suffer a loss of Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 per month. They said the government was claiming that there would be no reduction in the gross salary. It would be so because they are treating PRC as a package and including DA component in the PRC. Employees' unions claim that DA cannot be part of the PRC.

If the DA component is removed and if the reduced HRA is considered, then the loss would be around Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 per employee.

Rents in all towns have gone up and it is not proper to reduce the HRA. The executive meeting of the employees' union decided to have a meeting with all unions on Thursday and will give a strike notice to the Chief Secretary on Friday. They also said that the doors for any further meetings were closed and the agitation would continue till the government withdraws the GOs. Stating that the pay revision announced by the government is far below the Interim Relief (IR), AP JAC chairman Bandi Srinivasa Rao and AP JAC Amaravati chairman Bopparaju Venkateswarlu demanded that the government continue paying IR and also release the arrears of Dearness Allowance (DA).

They said there is no instance in the State's history of a pay revision being lower than IR.

Following the announcement made by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy early this month, the government on Monday issued a GO for a 23 per cent hike in the basic pay. The employees had been receiving 27 per cent IR for the last few months. "Let the government continue paying earlier salaries with 27 per cent IR along with DA. We don't want pay revision," said Srinivasa Rao. The employees' associations also demanded that the Chief Minister invite them for talks again.

They said the Chief Minister had promised 23 per cent fitment but the salaries were far below the IR. A Central government scheme was introduced doing away with the House Rent Allowance (HRA). The government had promised five DAs, but while implementing the same, it had done away with other benefits, they said. They also strongly opposed the government's proposal to implement PRC every 10 years against the existing five years. Secretariat Employees' Association president Venkatarami Reddy also voiced unhappiness over the GO.