Kurnool: VRAs demand govt to clear pending salaries

Kowthalam (Kurnool): The Village Revenue Assistants (VRAs) on Monday laid siege to Kothalam Tahsildar's Office demanding the government to clear the pending salaries. For nearly 3 hours, the VRAs obstructed the staff from entering the office. Later they staged a sit-in protest in front of the office. Addressing the gathering, Rythu Sangam district vice-president K Mallaiah said that the VRAs were supporting their family members on meagre salaries and they would do almost all works pertaining to the village. Now, their services are also being used for land re-surveying and e-cropping, said Mallaiah. Though their services are being used for all purposes, the government has failed to release their salaries for the last three months, he pointed out. Due to not release of salaries, they are unable to support their family members and demanded the government to clear pending salaries without further delay. Mallaiah further said that the meagre salaries of Rs 10, 500 were not adequate to the present day conditions as cost of all commodities skyrocketed. He demanded the government to enhance the salary from Rs 10, 500 to Rs 26,000 besides paying the Dearness Allowance (DA) of Rs 300. If the government does not fulfill the demands of VRAs, then they will intensify the protests statewide. He said the VRAs have decided to lay siege to the CCLA office at Amaravati on September 20.

After the protest, the VRAs handed over the representation to Deputy Tahsildar. The Deputy Tahsildhar assured that he will take the issue to the notice of government. VRAs Association mandal president and secretary Mareppa, Nagaraju, Veeresh, Ampaiah, Gopal, Manohar, Jettappa, Hanmanthu, Narasimhulu, Tayappa, Rangappa, Mangamma, Savithramma and Hanumanthamma participated.