Telangana State Employees Pin Hopes on New Congress Govt for Resolving Pending Issues

Hyderabad: State government employees have pinned hopes on the incoming Congress government to address their pending issues including payment of two Dearness Allowance (DA) instalments, expediting the submission of the second Pay Revision Commission (PRC) report and filling up vacancies in various departments.

Employees’ union leaders plan to meet Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, after he assumes charge and explain the problems being faced by over 10 lakh government employees.

After Telangana state was carved out in 2014, the employees, whose ‘Sakala Janula Samme’ was seen as a turning point in the agitation, extended support to the BRS in 2014 and 2018 elections and in the Legislative Council polls.

But, with problems such as delay in salary payment mounted, most of them stayed away from extending support to the BRS in the recent elections. With the Congress coming to power, they see fresh hope that their problems will be resolved.

Gazetted Officers Association, Secretariat branch, president P. Raj Kumar Gupta said two DA instalments each comprising 3.69 per cent were pending. “We are requesting the second PRC headed by retired bureaucrat N. Shiva Shankar to complete the process of preparing recommendations and submit the report to the state government,” he said.

One more crucial issue confronting is Government Order 317, introduced in 2021. As per the order, the collector and the head of department in the district will be a part of the allotment committee to decide on jobs and transfers for district cadre posts. Even though employees protested against the GO, the government did not revoke it.

For the transfer of zonal and multi-zonal posts, the decision will be taken by the principal secretary, special chief secretary and head of department. This started causing hardships to employees on transfers.

Telangana Gazetted Officers Association, Hyderabad Branch, president M.B. Krishna Yadav underlined the need for rectifying the problems in GO 317 to bring relief to employees. The delay in getting salaries especially in districts needs to be addressed apart from filling up of Class IV and below cadre vacancies, he added.

One hundred posts related to assistant section officers (ASOs) are lying vacant in the Secretariat, it was stated.