Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao today fulfilled his promise of implementing an enhanced fitment rate for the government employees and teachers of the state when he announced a 30% pay hike for them under the 11th Pay Revision Commission (PRC). He also announced that the retirement age for them had been pushed to 61 years, and that the gratuity at retirement had been increased from Rs 12 lakh to Rs 16 lakh. The decision caused much jubilation even among the treasury benches in the Telangana Assembly, where he made the announcement.
These changes in the terms of employment, which will reportedly benefit 9.17 lakh employees, will come into effect from April 1. Beneficiaries of the new fitment include contract and outsourcing employees, home-guards, Aanganwadi and ASHA workers, SERP employees, Vidya volunteers, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan staff, KGBV and SSA employees, and daily wage employees.
Further, the government will soon initiate inter-district transfers to enable married employees to work in the same district, and employees who are natives of Andhra Pradesh will be repatriated soon. Also, a family pension scheme for the kin of deceased employees will be introduced under the Contributory Pensions Scheme shortly.
Another significant welfare measure that will help the KGBV women teachers is that the government will now implement a six-month paid maternity leave for them.
Speaking on the matter, the CM said, "I am happy to introduce a 30% wage hike and other benefits for the employees of the state. They have played an important role in the development of Telangana."
The announcement marks the end of a
long and bitter stand-off between employee associations and the KCR government. Many leaders and employe association representatives called on KCR to thank him for the 30% wage hike, 3% more than neighbouring Andhra Pradesh's 27%.
Ministers Talasani Srinivas Yadav, Srinivas Goud, Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Satyavathi Rathod and Sabitha Indra Reddy, MLAs G Venkatramana Reddy, Peddireddi Sudarshan Reddy, Challa Dharma Reddy, Nannapuneni Narender, Danam Nagender, Sudhir Reddy and K Manik Rao, government whips G Sunitha, Chirumarthi Lingaiah and G Kishore, MLCs K Janardhan Reddy and Raghotham Reddy, former MLC Pula Ravinder, TNGO President Mamilla Rajender, TGO President V Mamata and General Secretary Enugula Satyanarayana, representatives of the PRTU-TS, Class IV Employees Union President Gaddam Gyaneswar and Telangana Revenue Services Association President Ravinder Reddy were among those who met the CM.