VIJAYAWADA: The long-pending demand of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) employees to get their salaries paid under 010 head of account, i.e., payment through treasury is likely to be implemented by November. Members of the Ministerial Employees’ Association of the civic body are set to meet Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in this regard on August 18.
For the last four years the employees had been placing this demand in front of the civic body authorities on this issue. However, it has not been resolved till date. But the employees saw a ray of hope so far as achieving their long pending demand went, when city Mayor Koneru Sreedhar on Wednesday gave an assurance that he would take an initiative to resolve their issue before the completion of his tenure.
According to VMC officials, a major chunk of the revenue earned by the civic body is spent for payment of salaries to the 2,700 permanent employees working in various departments of the Corporation. The salary bill itself is about `15 crore per month and the State government does not pay the salaries to VMC personnel as it does to employees of other civic bodies, such as those of Guntur and Visakhapatnam under the 010 scheme. ‘’The civic body (VMC) employees will be benefited if the State government provide (salaries) through 010 account and the civic body can save up to Rs 180 crore per annum (as a result of this),’’ said a member of Ministerial Employees Association.