Decision on pay revision after PRC panel report: Bhatti
Plans Rs 1,000 cr a mth to clear retired employees’ dues
Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka said on Monday that a decision on pay revision for government employees would be taken after the Pay Revision Committee (PRC) submits its report and declared that there is a proposal to increase the allocation of funds for clearing the pending dues of retired employees to Rs 1,000 crore per month. He alleged that the erstwhile Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) government had eroded the state’s fiscal position, weakened systems and left the state in such a precarious condition that even paying salaries to employees had become difficult.
Dissatisfied with the reply of the government to a query on the delays on DAs and payment of dues of retired employees, BRS members staged a walkout from the House.
The issue came up during the Question Hour in the Assembly on Monday when BRS members T Harish Rao and others sought to know the position with regard to pending DAs as well as the delay in payment of retirement benefits to employees.
Bhatti Vikramarka said that the state government was committed to the welfare of government employees. He said that during the BRS government, salaries were paid to employees only after the 15th of every month. “Since our government assumed office, salaries are being credited on the 1st of every month without delay. Our government has cleared three pending Dearness Allowances (DAs) that had been left unpaid by the BRS leadership”.
The Minister said that only to avoid the burden of clearing retirement benefits of employees, the previous government had increased the retirement age by three years. The retirement age was raised from 58 to 61 years, and for Class IV employees, from 60 to 61years. Due to this increase in retirement age, the burden of providing retirement benefits to 17,000 employees has now fallen on the present government.
“We have cleared all pending medical bills of employees. When our government came to power, the previous government had left behind arrears amounting to Rs 40,150 crore. A White Paper was released in the Assembly on this issue. Out of these, Rs 4,575 crore pertained to pending bills related to employees. After assuming office, our government has been regularly paying Rs 700 crore every month to clear pending employee dues. We are also considering a policy decision to increase this monthly payment from Rs 700 crore to Rs 1,000 crore to expedite clearance of arrears,” said the Finance Minister.
Bhatti Vikramarka said that with a humane approach from Chief Minister Revanth Reddy and the entire Cabinet, they were introducing cashless medical treatment cards for employees. “During your (BRS’) tenure, employee unions struggled for nearly 10 years demanding health cards. In the unfortunate event of a government employee’s accidental death, we are implementing an accident insurance scheme providing Rs 1.20 crore to the family… Since coming to power, our government has cleared approximately Rs 6,146 crore related to government employees.
Once the PRC report is received, a decision will be taken on implementing the new PRC. Currently, four Dearness Allowances (DAs) are pending, and a policy decision will be taken on them,” he said.
