Hyderabad: Staff to wait longer for pay balm

Hyderabad: Around three lakh government employees in the state who are awaiting an announcement on new pay scales are in for a big disappointment as the TS government has decided to extend the tenure of the PRC till December 31 this year to submit its recommendations.

Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar on Tuesday issued an order extending the period of the PRC till December-end. Officials said that the government decision to put on hold the salary hikes gave a clear indication that the new pay scales are unlikely till next financial year.

The government had constituted the PRC in May 2018. Till date, the PRC neither recommended Interim Relief (IR) nor submitted any preliminary report regarding the revision of pay scales to the government.

As a result, the government has been extending the deadline to submit the report by the PRC for every three months for the past two years.

The three-member PRC, headed by former IAS official CR Biswal, already completed deliberations with the employees' unions and sought their suggestions on pay scales.

Officials said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had deferred the enhancement of the salaries for a year keeping in mind the financial difficulties encountered by Telangana in the current financial year. The State Finance department also submitted a preliminary report on the fiscal crisis in the new financial year of 2020-2021 due to slowdown in the economy at national level.

The Commission was also requested to prepare new service rules following the rejig of the zonal system in Telangana. Currently, the state has been divided into seven zones and two multi zones.

Another major issue is the government scrapped the state cadre Group-I posts in many categories (including DSPs and RDOs) and included them in the multi zonal posts to check non-Telangana candidates join the key posts and safeguard the interests of Telangana-born aspirants.

"Government has the responsibility of protecting their services and give promotions to non-cadre IAS and IPS posts and ensure that there were no legal complications in future," officials said.