GUNTUR: The decision by the State government to lift the cap on the regularisation of contract employees failed to bring cheers to 4,000 timescale employees, who have been working for the past 30 years. Reason: These people were recruited between 1987 and 1993 as Nominal Muster Roll (NMR) employees by various departments, including education, agriculture, and municipal administration.
“There was no mention of regularising the NMR timescale employees in CM’s announcement recently,’’ said B Suresh, president, of AP Timescale Employees Joint Action Committee. Since then, these employees are continuing their work hoping that their services would get regularised, but in vain as most of them are nearing retirement. Over 40 employees working in Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority approached the court a few years ago, which issued orders in favour of the employees, following which the state government regularised their services.
“The CM promised to regularise our services during his Prajasankalapa Yatra. Though the government has formed a committee to discuss the issues of the employees, our problem remained unheard in the past four years,’’ he added.
Stating that the regularisation of their services would not put a financial burden on the government, he stated that the government would have to allot an additional budget of only Rs 16 crore per year, including all benefits. As the government decided to withdraw the five-year service rule for the staff, the employees whose services remained unregularised all these years due to the same reason are urging the CM to consider their issue.