VIJAYAWADA: Amid the stepped up agitation by employees over pay revision, the State government issued a fresh order on Saturday correcting a minor anomaly in the house rent allowance (HRA), limited only to staff working in the offices of various heads of departments (HoD) around Vijayawada.
The fresh order issued by Special Chief Secretary (Finance) Shamsher Singh Rawat said all employees working in the HoD offices situated around Vijayawada in the Amaravati capital region would be paid HRA at 16 per cent as against the 8 per cent fixed vide the January 17 order. This would be on par with the HRA paid to the state Secretariat staff as well as other HoD employees located in Vijayawada, he said.
The latest order did not mention any changes in the other HRA slabs, one of the main causes of disgruntlement among employees in the whole pay revision exercise.
In fact, the government recently fixed 16% HRA to the employees of the Secretariat and those working in the HoD offices located in Vijayawada. However, in the case of the HoD offices located in rural areas like Ibrahimpatnam, Mangalagiri and other such locations, the HRA was fixed at 8%.
Now, following a representation from the Head of the Departments of the Director of Works Accounts and Pay and Accounts Office, Ibrahimpatnam, for allowing HRA at 16% to all the employees working in their offices on par with the employees of Secretariat, Velagapudi and HoDs located at Vijayawada, the Government issued an order to allow HRA at 16% to all the employees of the HOD offices, who relocated from Hyderabad and whose working office locations fall under the 8% HRA area, on par with the employees working in the Secretariat at Velagapudi and other HoD offices working in Vijayawada.