Andhra Pradesh: NGOs warn of stir over demands

Amaravati: Government employees on Tuesday warned that they would resort to an agitation in a phased manner if their demands, including the implementation of the Pay Revision Commission recommendations, were not conceded immediately.

Leaders of the AP Joint Action Committee (JAC) and Joint Action Committee Amaravati met Chief secretary Sameer Sharma and government advisor (public affairs) S R K Reddy and submitted a charter of ten demands for immediate consideration and action.

This is the first time since the YSRCP assumed power in May 2019 that the employees came out with a clear warning to the government on their long-pending grievances.

They said both the chief secretary and the advisor promised to take up the issues with the Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for necessary action. According to them, Ramakrishna Reddy said a meeting will be arranged in two days to discusses the issues.

"We gave the government a lot of time. We patiently waited for more than two years but we can wait no longer. We are under tremendous pressure from the employees," leaders of the two JACs told reporters.

"It's over a year since the 11th PRC submitted its recommendations but so far no action has been taken on it. We hope the government will come out with an announcement of pay revision by Dasara (October 15)," they added.

They pointed out that the government was not paying the staff salaries and pensions promptly and they were being delayed inordinately.

"Even on the 12th, the retired employees are yet to get their pension this month. The retired staff are also not being paid benefits like gratuity, GPF, leave encashment," the leaders lamented.

They also expressed serious displeasure over the non-payment of five instalments of enhanced dearness allowance that was due since July 1, 2018. They wanted the first two instalments of DA arrears paid by December 31, 2021.

"There is a growing feeling among employees that the government is looking down upon them and is also neglecting. There is unrest among them that even their legitimate concerns are not being addressed for the past two years," the leaders noted.

Explaining this to the chief secretary and the government advisor, the JACs leaders said the employees were ready for agitation in a phased manner if their demands were not conceded.

Among the other issues the JACs raised were immediate scrapping of the Contributory Pension Scheme, payment of salaries and pensions on the first of every month, clearance of all pending bills and monetary benefits, introduction of a new insurance-linked health scheme, regularisation of all contract employees, compassionate jobs to the kin of employees who died of Covid-19 and clearance of long-pending promotions in different departments.

AP JAC chairman Bandi Srinivasa Rao, JAC Amaravati Chairman Bopparaju Venkateswarlu and other leaders led the delegation.