MEPMA staff seek pay as per GO 157

Khammam: Telangana MEPMA (IKP-Urban) Employees Association has demanded that the State government implement a pay-scale for the staff working in urban local bodies in the State.

The Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA) was established in 2007 for formulating strategies to implement poverty reduction programmes in urban areas. It is the state nodal agency for implementing various components of the Union government. There are as many as 378 fixed tenure employees such as community organisers, town mission coordinators, district mission coordinators, data entry operators cum junior assistants and others working in 141 urban local bodies besides GHMC.

The association district general secretary, Shaik Nazaar Ahmed, informed that the MEPMA staff plays a crucial role in taking the government’s welfare schemes to the targeted sections and creating awareness among the urban poor about income generation activities. But they are facing financial difficulties due to meagre wages.

The union appealed to the previous BRS government to extend to them the pay scale which the government announced for fixed tenure employees (FTEs) of the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) 23 years after the society was set up.