Telangana employees pay to go up

Hyderabad: Handing out a series of sops, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday announced the setting up of a Pay Revision Commission in three days to revise salaries and pensions for 4.5 lakh employees and 1.8 lakh pensioners.

Mr Rao has set a deadline of August 15 for the PRC to submit its report. This is the first PRC to be constituted in Telangana state. Mr Rao offered to give Interim Relief (IR) for employees on June 2 on the occasion of TS formation day to increase their salaries till the PRC recommendations are implemented.

Mr Rao said the employees deserved more pay and benefits as they were working sincerely and with commitment for the last four years due to which Telangana has become the No.1 state in the country in various sectors.

Mr Rao ruled out increasing the salaries for TS Road Transport Corporation staff as demanded by the unions, saying that the corporation was facing a huge debt burden.

Mr Rao remained non-committal on abolition of the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and restoration of Old Pension Scheme (OPS), which is one of the major demands of employees. He promised to set up a committee to study the issue and make recommendations.