Chennai: Over 15 lakh employees of the Tamil Nadu government are hugely disappointed as Deepavali would not be as bright as they would want it to be because the government has hurriedly withdrawn its order for early disbursement of their salaries on Oct. 28 to help their celebrations.
So, this would mean receiving salaries after the festival of lights. The government had issued an order advancing the payment of salaries to its employees to Oct. 28 to help them gear up for the festival.
Accordingly, the treasury and accounts department was asked to disburse the hefty sum amounting to over Rs. 4,000 crore. But no sooner the treasury and accounts department received the communication than it replied stating “the Government Order No. 277 dated Oct. 25 in respect of payment of salary on Oct. 28, it is requested not to implement the above GO.”
“It is not clear why the treasury and accounts department advised the government not to go ahead. Most likely, it may be because technically it might not be feasible for the department to prepare the bills and disburse the sum at such a short notice,” a senior official attempted to explain.
Nevertheless, the sudden development has let down the government staff. “Normally the salary is credited on the last working day of the month. This month the last working day follows Deepavali. Had we been given salaries in advance we would be able to prepare for the celebrations. And those of desiring to visit the relatives could plan the week-end trip, thanks to cash flow. But these would not happen now,” laments R. Shanmugarajan, leader of the biggest and oldest of NGO unions — the TN Government Officials Union.
