HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Monday constituted a new Pay Revision Committee (PRC) for recommendations to revise salaries and pensions for government employees and pensioners, within six months. Rao also announced a 5 per cent interim relief for employees.
Chief Secretary A. Santhi Kumari issued orders appointing retired IAS officer N. Sivashankar as PRC chairman and retired IAS officer B. Ramaiah as committee member. The finance department was asked to provide the required funds and staff for the PRC.
Rao constituted the first PRC of Telangana state in July 2018, but the pay revisions came into force only in April 2021, following the commission submitting its report in December 2020. The Chief Minister announced a 30 per cent fitment (basic pay hike) in March 2021, with it coming into effect in April 2021.
While Rao had announced a new PRC pay scale in February 2015, with a 43 per cent fitment, with the same coming into effect in March 2015, backdated from June 2014, this PRC was constituted by the Congress government led by then chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy in 2013.
The recommendations of the PRC for a 25 per cent fitment could not be implemented due to Telangana statehood agitation and uncertainty over bifurcation.
It may be recalled that Rao, while speaking in the Legislative Assembly during the Monsoon Session on August 7, announced that there would be “unbelievable hikes” in the next revision.
Rao claimed that Telangana state government employees were the highest paid in the country, more than even those with the Centre since the BRS government had enhanced employees’ salaries in the past nine years.
“I made a promise to state employees during the Telangana agitation that they would get the highest salaries in the new state. I fulfilled the promise,” he said.
