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Contrary to the expectations that the employees of the Andhra Pradesh government would go up in arms against the Jagan Mohan Reddy government on the pay revision issue, the chief minister took them by pleasant surprise by announcing increase in their retirement age.
The employee associations received a sudden call from the CMO in the afternoon on Friday for a meeting with Jagan.
While the employees were expecting that Jagan would not be able to announce much salary hike and they might have to go in for an agitation, the chief minister came up with a surprising announcement.
He declared that the retirement age of the employees would be increased from the present 60 years to 62 years, which was an unexpected bonanza for the employees.
He, however, said the pay hike would be 23 percent, as against 14.29 per cent recommended by the chief secretary committee.
He announced that the revised pay structure would be with retrospective effect from July 1, 2018, but the monetary benefits will be applied from 1-4-2020.
The enhanced pay scale along with pending DA’s will be effective from January 2022, he said and added that the decision shall put an additional burden of Rs 10,247 crore on the State treasury. Also, all the pending arrears like PF, GLI, leave encashment will be cleared by April 2022.
Jagan said the increase in retirement age from 60 years to 62 years was aimed at making better use of their services, which will be implemented from this January.
In regard to CPS, he said that a decision will be made by the end of June, as a Cabinet Subcommittee has already been laid.
Further, the Chief Minister assured that jobs will be provided to family members of the employees who died of Covid-19, under compassionate grounds by the end of June and also constituted a committee with the Chief Secretary to revamp the Employee Health Scheme (EHS) for better implementation and told to resolve the issues within two-weeks.
For those employees working in the Village and Ward Secretariats a revised pay scale will be given from July this year after the completion of probation and confirmation process by June 30.
He also announced to provide houses to those employees who don't own a house by reserving 10 percent of the plots in MIG layouts in Jagananna Smart Townships and 20 percent rebate will be provided. The constituency will be treated as a unit and affirmed that no employee will be deprived of housing.
The employee union leaders, who have been aggressively criticising the state government all these days, were forced to go silent.
JAC leader Bandi Srinivasa Rao, who was highly critical of Jagan till now, said he was happy with the decisions of the state government.
“We are thankful to Jagan for announcing increase in retirement age, though we did not ask for it. This is a welcome gesture,” he said.
