MUMBAI: Maharashtra Dy CM Ajit Pawar on Tuesday changed his earlier decision of cutting the one month salary of government employees and issued the notifications as well.
As per the earlier notifications, the chief minister, all other ministers, MLAs, MLCs and representatives of local governing bodies will take 60 per cent cut.
The A, B grade scale government and government-aided education institutions employees' March salary will be deducted by 50 per cent.
The C grade employees' salary will be deducted by 25 per cent while the D grade government employees' salary will not be deducted.
By taking salary cut decision, Maharashtra government likely to get Rs 5000 crore to Rs 6000 crore to fight against COVID 19.
However, Ajit Pawar issued clarifications that the salary of all government employees will not be slashed but it will be paid in two installments in the next months.
Maharashtra government is going through a difficult phase. It has a debt of over Rs 5.5 lakh crore and the central government has not yet paid its pending dues of over Rs 16,000 crore.
Pawar wrote to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman asking to hand over Rs 16000 dues of Maharashtra government by end of March 31.
Maharashtra Finance Minister Ajit Pawar had also demanded the Rs 25,000 crore’s package to fight against COVID 19 in the state.
Pawar said that due to central government decisions to shut down, the Maharashtra government is losing the huge revenue every day.
Leader of Opposition, Devendra Fadnavis said that the government should not cut the salary of the police and health workers who are working tirelessly to protect and safeguard the people's lives.
NCP MLA Rohit Pawar also tweeted that the police and health workers' salary will not be deducted.
Then, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar and chief minister Uddhav Thackeray issued clarifications said that they are in difficult times, therefore, they have taken this harsh decision.
"But the deducted salary will be paid later on. We are not slashing anyone's salary, so people do not need to panic. We have enough stock of food grains and funds as well. Everyone has to understand the present situations and help the government," Uddhav Thackeray said.