After receiving a setback in the by-elections to Dubbak assembly seat and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation elections, Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has realised that he has been fast losing support from both employees and the unemployed youth.
The fact that the TRS could not get even 20 per cent of the postal ballots in the GHMC polls indicates that the employees are very angry with the KCR government for continuing to dodge the implementation of Pay Revision Commission report even after the completion of two years in office in the second term.
Similarly, there were reports that the unemployed youth had voted against the TRS in large numbers both in Dubbak and also in the GHMC elections. So, KCR understood that he cannot continue to hoodwink these sections, which are crucial for the victory of any party in the elections.
That is precisely why KCR, last week, directed filling up of all job vacancies at the earliest. He announced recruitments in all the government departments at the earliest.
On Tuesday, the chief minister came out with a “New Year gift” to the employees, announcing an increase in salaries of all the government employees and also enhancement of their retirement age from existing 58 years at the earliest.
He appointed a three-member committee led by chief secretary Somesh Kumar and comprising principal secretary (finance) K Ramakrishna Rao and principal secretary and water resources development Rajat Kumar as members, to study the pay revision commission report and make suitable recommendations.
The committee will have a meeting with all employees’ unions. Later, the committee will recommend to the government on percentage of salary hike, extent of enhancement in retirement age of employees, revision of service rules, revised policy for promotions and strategy to be adopted to overcome legal problems for implementing zonal system etc. Later, the state cabinet would meet and take the final decisions,” the official statement said.
The chief minister directed that the salary hike be extended to all the government employees, grant-in-aid employees, work-charged employees, daily wages employees, fulltime contingent employees, part-time contingent employees and pensioners among others.
“In all, the salary hike would benefit 9,36,976 employees. If need be, the financial burden on the Telangana state road transport corporation (TSRTC) due to salary hike would also be borne by the state government,” the official note, quoting the chief minister said.
