Telangana Cabinet Decides To Clear Pending Bills of Staff, Retired Staff in 100-Days
Proposes to contribute 50% salaries towards clearance of pending bills
Hyderabad: The Cabinet on Thursday decided to clear pending bills of serving employees and retirement benefits of retired staff within 100 days, with a detailed action plan to be finalised at the next Cabinet meeting scheduled for May 4. The Cabinet also proposed to contribute 50 per cent of their salaries towards clearing the dues.
Briefing mediapersons at the Secretariat, Information and Public Relations Minister Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy said the Cabinet expressed serious concern over the accumulation of thousands of crores of pending bills during the previous BRS government’s 10-year tenure. He noted that at the time of Telangana’s formation in 2014, there were no such dues, but delays in releasing retirement benefits, coupled with an increase in the retirement age from 58 to 61 years by the BRS regime, had caused hardships to retired employees, pensioners and their families.
The Cabinet decided to take immediate steps to ensure that retired employees are not forced to run around government offices and the Secretariat for their dues. It was noted that pending bills amount to about Rs 6,200 crore for regular employees and around Rs 8,000 crore for retired staff. While acknowledging the state’s financial constraints, the Cabinet resolved to explore all alternative avenues to mobilise resources and arrange the required funds at the earliest.
Ministers collectively came forward, offering to contribute 50 per cent of their own salaries as well as those of public representatives, if necessary, to facilitate immediate payments to retired employees. The Cabinet directed the resource mobilisation sub-committee to hold discussions with employee unions, teachers’ associations, retired employees’ bodies and other stakeholders to resolve the issue at the earliest. It reiterated its commitment to put in place necessary arrangements to clear dues of retired employees within the 100-day timeframe.
The Cabinet also approved the appointment of governing bodies on a nomination basis for primary agricultural cooperative societies (PACS) whose tenure has expired.
In another key decision, the Cabinet approved completion of land acquisition for the Chinna Kaleshwaram Project, a long-pending demand of people in the Manthani Assembly constituency. The project is expected to benefit nearly 45,000 acres and residents of 63 villages across Mahadevpur, Kataram, Malhar Rao and Mahamutharam mandals. The project had been delayed due to land acquisition issues.
Of the total 2,427 acres required, 1,020 acres have already been acquired. The Cabinet approved proposals amounting to Rs 166.67 crore for acquiring the remaining land.
Further, the Cabinet gave its nod for setting up an integrated aqua park in the revenue limits of Hajipur in Mancherial district, near the Sripada Yellampalli Project. As part of this initiative, 85.10 acres of land belonging to the Irrigation department will be allocated to the Fisheries department for the project.
