Don't Cut Police, Sanitation Workers' Salaries: Congress, BJP

BJP Telangana president Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday demanded that the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao instruct the government to pay full salaries to the police staff, and the health and sanitation employees of the state.

He pointed out that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had asked all organisations and states of the country to pay full salaries to their employees.

Kumar said that he was appreciating all the steps initiated by the state government to contain the spread of the coronavirus. He however regretted that the decision of the state government to cut the salaries of its employees was taken without consulting the employees. He said that such a decision would have an impact on the families of the employees, and urged the CM to review his decisions.

He also expressed surprise over the economic condition of the state government within just 15 days of a lockdown.

Congress MLC T Jeevan Reddy too urged the Chief Minister to exempt the police, the health department employees and the sanitation workers from the cut in monthly salaries. He told the CM that none of the states of the country had deducted the salaries of them employees of these three departments as they had been discharging their duties even after the lockdown was declared.

Reddy too asked the CM if he had held discussions with the government employees and teachers on the issue. Referring to the decision of the state government to also cut the pensions being paid to the pensioners of the state, he said that it was not good to make the pensioners suffer even more in the name of a lockdown.

He urged the CM to review his decision of effecting cuts in salaries.