HYDERABAD: In a relief to scores of contract employees working as sweepers and attenders in Zilla Parishad, panchayat, and other schools of the State, the Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to pay them the minimum time scale of last grade ‘Equal pay for equal work’ as per judgement of the Supreme Court in the case of State of Punjab vs Jagjit Singh and others.
Justice Abhinand Kumar Shavili passed this interim order in batch petitions filed by the sweepers from various districts of the State seeking directions to the authorities concerned to pay them the revised 10th Pay Commission scales of 2015 attached to the last grade regular posts along with allowances on par with regular employees by applying the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’ till regularisation of their services.The petitioners’ counsels submitted that the petitioners were initially appointed on part time basis for nomenclature purpose, but they are working on full time basis in panchayat schools.
However, they are being paid pittance wages ranging from Rs 1,600 to Rs 4,000 per month only though they are discharging duties on par with regular last grade employees who are drawing about Rs 15,000 per month. Some of the petitioners have even completed more than four decades service. They urged the court to direct the government authorities concerned to pay salaries to the petitioners as per the law laid down by the Supreme Court. After hearing the case, the judge passed the above interim order and adjourned the case hearing.
GST fraud case: CBI files counter against BS Gandhi
The Central Bureau of Investigation, Hyderabad, told the Telangana High Court that it has registered a FIR against Hyderabad GST office Superintendent Bollineni Srinivasa Gandhi and Deputy Commissioner of Central Taxes of Hyderabad Ch Sudha Rani for resorting to extortion and collecting bribes from traders.
While denying the accused-petitioner’s allegation that the CBI is acting with vengeance, the probe agency said that Gandhi, while working in the Enforcement Directorate, Hyderabad, had received bribes of Rs 29 lakh from Indu projects limited belonging to Shyam Prasad Reddy, one of the accused companies in the charge sheets filed by the CBI and ED in Jagan Mohan Reddy’s disproportionate assets case.
In this regard, the CBI filed a counter affidavit in the petition filed by BS Gandhi challenging the FIR registered against him by the CBI in an alleged GST fraud case. He contended that the Union Finance Minister had accorded sanction to commence CBI probe against him though the competent authorities to do so is the GST Commissioner.
The CBI, in its counter, said that the preliminary inquiry, prima facie, confirmed the allegations made by the de-facto complainant in the case, JS Sridhar Reddy, against the Deputy Commissioner Sudha Rani and Superintendent BS Gandhi.
Therefore, the said inquiry was converted into a regular case and was entrusted to the CBI to independently ascertain the facts and evaluate the evidence. The accused-petitioner’s allegations against the CBI are not justified and unwarranted, it added. The matter is expected to come up for hearing on October 15.