Bills for regularisation of contract staff, guaranteed pension scheme passed in AP

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh Assembly passed the bill for regularisation of contract staff and the AP Guaranteed Pension Scheme replacing the Contributory Pension Scheme on Wednesday.

Finance minister Buggana Rajendranath said this was a historical decision and the government recognised the “dedication and hard work” of the government employees.

The minister, while moving the regularisation of services of contract employees bill, said, “This is a testament to the state government's commitment to formalising and regularising the services of all contract employees who started their work on or before June 2, 2014, meticulously following stipulated norms and guidelines in a most transparent manner.”

Highlighting Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy's proactive steps for the welfare of contract employees, Rajendranath stated, "Even though the expert committee constituted by the government suggested implementation of a 10-15 year timeline for regularisation of contract workers' services, the CM decided to waive the time-stipulation."

He said around 3 lakh employees were benefited from the welfare initiatives of the present government, which included the merging of APSRTC into the state government which benefited nearly 53,000 employees and the recruitment of nearly 1.35 lakh employees in ward and village secretariats and 53,126 employees in the health sector. Some 6,500 posts including those of 411 SI and RSI posts and 6,100 police constable posts in the police department were also filled.

The Assembly passed the Guaranteed Pension Scheme (GPS) bill. While passing it, Rajendranath said, "The implementation of GPS will bring about an additional financial commitment of '2,500 crore. However, this decision has been carefully deliberated upon, considering the existing pension schemes and the need to enhance employee welfare.”

The state government has been studying this bill for a long time and many models were examined. If the government decides to implement OPS stubbornly, there will be no situation of salary payment to the employees after the next 10 years. Tamil Nadu and West Bengal have introduced NPS.”

Andhra Pradesh state has 5,07,070 government employees, of which 2,02,520 were OPS employees and 3,73,770 CPS employees, 2,04,663 regular pensioners and 1,69,107 family pensioners. The AP’s GPS system is sure to be implemented in other states too. If the last drawn salary of an employee is '50,000, the government is responsible to give 50 per cent of the salary or 60 per cent pension under family pension if the employee dies in harness.