Congress Asks CM To Resolve Employee Issues Immediately

The Congress has warned the TRS government of serious consequences if it further delayed the resolution of the issues concerning the government employees.

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N Uttam Kumar Reddy and chief spokesperson Dasoju Sravan wrote an open letter to Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao asking him to do justice to the employees, teachers and other categories of government staff.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Saturday, Sravan said that the employees had played a major role in the Telangana statehood movement while putting their jobs and lives at stake. He said that the 'Sakala Janula Samme' and the 'Sahaya Nirakarana' proved to be turning points in the statehood movement. Consequently, the employees had lost 42 days' salaries, and the commitment of the employees for the cause was one of the main reasons for UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi granting statehood to Telangana.

However, the TRS government and KCR had ignored the sacrifices and totally disappointed the employees, Sravan said. Lakhs of employees were now suffering to get their trivial demands fulfilled, with the Chief Minister not giving even five minutes for the employees' unions today after spending hours with them during the agitation days to discuss strategy, he claimed.

Elaborating on the employees' demands, Sravan sought:

1. Enhancing of the age of retirement from 58 years to 60 years on par with central government employees

2. Giving the employees a social security and pressurising the Centre to restore the old pension policy

3. Expediting the PRC announcement

4. Expediting the employees' transfers

5. Bringing back about 750 employees of Telangana working under Andhra Pradesh

6. Abolishing the "Order to Serve" rule

7. Regularising contract and outsourcing employees

Sravan said that the Chief Minister should have called for an all-party meeting to discuss the issue, but that he did not believe in any consultation process and therefore assigned the task to a cabinet sub-committee.

Announcing the Congress' full support to the employees' union, he demanded that the state government immediately resolve the issue without any further delay.