VIJAYAWADA: With various employees’ unions threatening to go on an agitation, the State government on Tuesday announced that it would clear all the pending arrears of its employees amounting to Rs 3,000 crore by March 31. The assurance came after the Group of Ministers (GoM), constituted to look into employees’ issues, held talks with the leaders of the employees’ associations at the Secretariat on Tuesday.
The GoM took the decision to clear all dues with regard to the Government Provident Fund (GPF), gratuity, leave encashment, medical bills, Dearness Allowance, APGLI as per the directions given by Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The GoM, comprising Ministers Buggana Rajendranath, Botcha Satyanarayana and Audimulapu Suresh, Government Advisor (Public Affairs) Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy and Chief Secretary KS Jawahar Reddy, met the employees’ leaders and discussed their issues.
Speaking to reporters after deliberations with the representatives of employees’ associations, Sajjala asserted, “Employees are a part of the government and YSRC is committed to resolve all their grievances. We are going to clear Rs 3,000 crore pending dues by March 31.” Stating that issues can be resolved through talks only, Sajjala said the GoM would always keep its doors open for its employees.
Admitting that employees are dissatisfied as the government could not meet their demands because of the precarious finances due to Covid, he said the government would take care of their welfare.
AP JAC Amaravati chief B Venkateswarlu said the GoM told them that a decision on payment of the Pay Revision Commission (PRC) arrears would be taken before March 16 and the announcement on the new DAs would be made after discussions in April.
On abolition of the Contributory Pension Scheme, the GoM informed that they were coming up with a better pension scheme instead of restoring the Old Pension Scheme. “They also mentioned to take a decision on regularisation of contract employees and to resolve the issues related to outsourcing employees soon.” He said that the Group of Ministers demanded the constitution of the 12th Pay Revision Commission at the earliest.
When asked whether they are going ahead with their agitation plan starting from March 9, Bopparaju replied that there was no change in their plan and a decision on the future course of action would be taken after discussing the outcome of the meeting with the GoM in the Executive Committee meeting of the AP JAC Amaravati.