VIJAYAWADA: The stalemate over the implementation of the Pay Revision Commission (PRC) recommendations continues as the state government and employees’ associations failed to arrive at a consensus at a meeting held on Thursday.
During the Joint Staff Council meeting held at the Secretariat, finance department officials, including principal secretary Sashi Bhushan Kumar and secretary KVV Satyanarayana, held discussions on fitment, dates for payment of monetary benefits and other issues with the leaders of the employees’ associations.
Stating that consultations and discussions are a continuous process in a democracy, Sashi Kumar asserted that the government is contemplating implementing the PRC recommendations for its employees at the earliest. He maintained that the appeals made by the employees’ leaders on various aspects will be taken to the notice of the government.
After the meeting, leaders of AP JAC and AP JAC Amaravati asserted that there is no use in holding discussions with the officials and made it clear that they will put forward their appeals before the Chief Minister only. Informing that the officials explained to them the financial position of the state, the employees’ leaders made it clear that they will not accept the 14.29% fitment as recommended by the officers’ committee and demanded that the PRC report, submitted by Ashutosh Mishra, should be implemented in toto.
At the same breath, they also wanted clarity on the abolition of the Contributory Pension Scheme and regularisation of contract employees. Bandi Srinivas and Bopparaju Venkateswarulu, chairpersons of AP JAC and AP JAC Amaravati, said they have appealed to the officials not to waste their time and discuss the fitment issue with the Chief Minister. They sought to know what happened to the promise made by the CM in Tirupati to settle the issue within 10 days.
They said the future course of action will be announced at a meeting of AP JAC and AP JAC Amaravati to be held on January 3. Bopparaju lamented that the government conducted meetings on PRC only to humiliate employees. “After the talks at the level of FM Buggana Rajendranath and Government Advisor Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy and when we are expecting talks with the CM, the process has now come back to square one with the meeting with the finance officials.”
He also sought to know why the government came up with Village/Ward Secretariat recruitment if the claim that the expenditure on employees crossed 100% of the state revenues is true.