Telangana draws Hyderabad High Court ire for not paying staff

Hyderabad: A division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt of the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday expressed its displeasure with the Telangana Panchayat Raj department for its inaction regarding hundreds of sanitary workers not being paid their salaries for months.

The Bench was dealing with a petition by Mr R. Pratap of Warangal city, seeking to declare as illegal the action of the authorities in not paying the salaries in accordance with various laws and not regularising the services of 50,000 employees of 8,000 grama panchayats of the state.

The petitioner said that the action of the authorities was against the Minimum Wages Act, 1948 and the Contract Labour (Prohibition and Regularise) Act, 1970 and several other Acts.

The Bench questioned the government counsel what the authorities had done when it came to their notice that the contractors were not paying the salaries (Rs 500 per month) of sanitary workers.

The Bench also wondered how a person could live on a meager amount of Rs 500 per month and asked the counsel what the minimum wage was under the Act.

The counsel replied that as per the Act, Rs 6,500 had to be paid to each worker. The Bench then asked the counsel to submit a detail report before the court within a week.

Info sought on plan to lift city garbage
A division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Dilip B. Bhosale and Justice S.V. Bhatt of the Hyderabad High Court on Tuesday asked the advocate general of Telangana to submit a report before it by Monday on action being taken to remove garbage from the streets of municipal corporations, excluding GHMC, and municipalities in the state.

The Bench was dealing with a PIL by Mr Vuppala Prabhakar, a resident of Nizamabad city, submitting that non removal of garbage and cleaning of streets and drains in the towns and cities of the state, was affecting public health.

He submitted that though the government authorities had been claiming that the sanitation workers had called off their strike and joined duties in most of towns and cities, in truth, the workers were continuing their strike.
 
Notice issued to NTR health varsity
Justice A. Ramalingeswara Rao of the Hyderabad High Court issued a notice to the NTR University of Health Sciences at Vijayawada on a plea questioning the action of the varsity in conducting the PG medical clinical practical examinations without the mandatory external examiners.

Dr Kranthi Kumar moved the petition contending that the rules made it clear that there should be two external examiners from outside the state, but the authorities did not follow the rules.

He also alleged that the authorities had discriminated against him as he was a former Andhra Pradesh Junior Doctors’ Association leader and he had also headed the movement against the question paper leakage scam in respect of PG Medical Entrance Examination 2014 and ultimately a CBCID enquiry was ordered and the examination was cancelled and fresh examination was ordered.

He urged the court to order an inquiry into this and sought fresh examination.
 
Orders reserved on Hero Motocorp
The Hyderabad High Court has reserved its orders in an appeal by the Andhra Pradesh government seeking to vacate an order granted by a single judge staying construction activities at the site allotted to Hero Motor Corporation Ltd in Madannapalem near Sri City SEZ in Chittoor district. The single judge granted the interim order in a petition by Ishwariya Orchards.