Tirupati: Employees up in the arms over 'reverse PRC'

Tirupati: The government employees JAC is furious over the GOs on pay revision commission (PRC) benefits issued by the state government. They are on an agitation path and planning to intensify the stir in the coming days making it clear that there is no chance of agreeing to the GOs issued on Monday night. The leaders of the JAC have been saying that the employees in all cadres with no exception have been expressing their anger at the government for acting against their interests and trying to suppress their feelings.

The employees could not hide their anger at the government for its unilateral attitude in announcing the decision without taking into consideration the agony of teachers, employees and pensioners associations. Even in the discussions with the government, they were not allowed to express their view points.

Calling it as 'reverse PRC', they are saying that the reduction in fitment more than the interim relief and the cut in HRA irrespective of rural and urban difference, will result in the net reduction in salaries. By giving the four pending DA instalments from January 2022, the government has escaped from paying the arrears.

Speaking to The Hans India, the president of Tirupati NGO association and the chairman of AP JAC Tirupati wing S Suresh Babu said that the employees have never seen such a PRC in the history and there is no way of accepting it. "We will not go back on our demands. The executive of AP NGOs will be meeting in Vijayawada on Wednesday followed by AP employees' JAC meeting on Thursday. After these two meetings, an action plan will be announced to take the agitation forward," he maintained.

He further said that the employees have never asked for the increase in retirement age by two years but the government did this according to their administrative convenience. The motive behind reducing the HRA from 20 per cent to 8 per cent could not be understood. There was no scientific basis behind this. The employees protested against the GOs on Tuesday by wearing black badges and burnt the copies of GOs before several offices.

AP UTF district president and AP JAC district secretary general K Muthyala Reddy observed that with the four percent reduction in fitment than the IR will result in the direct loss of 2-3 increments during the entire service of the employees and indirect loss of DA and HRA resulting in a net loss of around Rs 4,000 per month. This loss will further go up with the increase in service and haunt them lifelong.

Also, the monetary benefits of PRC were announced from April 1, 2020 though the IR was given from July 1, 2019. As PRC was lower by four percent than IR, the employees have to repay the difference amount for nine months. While they asked for abolition of the Contributory Pensions Scheme (CPS), the government has done away with city compensatory allowance without saying any word on CPS. It has not even left the pensioners and increased the age from 70 to 80 years to get additional quantum of pension. Due to all this the employees will have to forego huge amounts of arrears, he said.