Vijayawada: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is keen on resolving issues concerning government employees, including abolition of the contributory pension scheme, in a bid to halt their ongoing protests.
Ministers Botsa Satyanarayana, Adimulapu Suresh and Buggana Rajendranath are working out with officials and advisers on PRC dues and others issues as the government is likely to announce on March 16. They are also working towards an alternative to the old pension scheme for CPS employees.
It may be recalled that a JAC of all employees unions and associations hit the roads in Vijayawada last year as part of their ‘mega march’ protest. Subsequently, the Chief Minister met employees’ leaders to resolve 11th PRC and other issues. Now the employees feel that their wages are on a downward slide because of the new PRC. They were also irked by delayed payment of salaries.
The ministers committee comprising Satyanarayana, Suresh and Rajendranath, advisers Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy and Chandrasekhar Reddy and higher officials agreed to pay Rs 3,000 crore dues by the end of this month. Following the temporary relief, union leaders have decided to meet in the first week of April to review the progress and take a decision on the future course of action.
When the ministers committee mooted the guaranteed pension scheme, the employees summarily rejected it and stood firm that CPS should be abandoned, once and for all. Now the government has started fresh efforts to formulate an alternative scheme on par with OPS to end the CPS issue.
Chandrasekhar Reddy said that the government was sure to cancel CPS. He admitted that there was a delay in the payment of salaries and recalled that the government has agreed to pay the pending bills of the employees by the end of March. Referring to the RTC employees, he said that RTC has been merged with the government and they are now government employees.
He said that the monthly revenue of the state government was Rs 1.25 lakh crore of which Rs 90 lakh crore is spent on salaries. He said that the government will take a decision on payment of PRC arrears on March 16. He said that although some forces were trying to create disturbances, with the support of employees the state will be on the right development path.
Village and ward secretariat employees’ federation state president Md. Jani Pasha said that the state government had given jobs to 1.34 lakh people in a single batch. He clarified that employees from their secretariat will not participate in the protests and agitations.
