New Year bonanza for Telangana staff

Hyderabad: As a new year bonanza, the state government has decided to hike the salaries of all the government employees, increase retirement age and also fill the vacant posts in all departments. The decision will benefit nearly 9.37 lakh employees in Telangana State. This decision is being seen as a measure to placate the employees who had expressed their anger during Dubbaka and GHMC polls.

The government has to face municipal elections in Khammam and Warangal and also MLC polls in Graduates' constituency and also Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly by-election soon. Announcing this after a meeting with officials on Tuesday, Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said that the salaries of TSRTC employees, who are receiving low salaries, will be increased and the State government will bear the additional burden of increased salaries, if needed.

Grant-in Aid employees, work charged employees, daily wages employees, full time contingent employees, part-time contingent employees, home huards, Anganwadi workers, contract employees, outsourcing employees, Asha workers, Vidya volunteers, Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) employees, people receiving the honorariums and pensioners are among others who would be benefitted by this decision.

The government is planning to extend new PRC benefits directly to the employees without IR (Interim Relief) under the new pay revision. It is learnt that the government is contemplating to give 33 per cent fitment under the new PRC. The PRC commission has finalised its recommendations and submitted the same to the government recently.

A 3-member committee headed by Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar has been appointed to finalise the new PRC for all government employees. The committee would study the PRC report in January first week. It will hold a meeting with the employees' unions during the second week of January before giving final recommendations. The committee would also prepare a strategy to get over the legal problems for implementing the zonal system and other related issues before the issue was presented to the State cabinet for its approval on PRC fitment.

Increase in the retirement age, new recruitment process in all government departments, promotions, effecting the transfers, formulation of simplified service rules and giving all the benefits on the day of the retirement to the employees would also be finalised by the end of February. The Chief Minister directed officials to have DPCs so that promotions in Revenue and Police departments can be taken up. He also directed them to speed up appointments on compassionate grounds which has been pending for long.