Underscoring the need to pay the salaries of Class III and IV employees on time, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Praveen Prakash on Friday asked the Drawing & Disbursing Officer and Assistant Secretary (Claims) (General Administration Department) not to prepare bill pertaining to his salary until the salaries of the contract and outsourced employees working in the GAD (Political) were paid.
In his letter, Mr. Prakash said that he would give a self-declaration that all contract/outsourced employees working in GAD (Political) had been paid the monthly salary. The bill related to my salary should be prepared only after the receipt of the declaration every month, he said in the letter.
Mr. Praveen Prakash said the real arms of the government were the Class III and Class IV employees. “It is they who translate the vision of the government into reality at the field level. Incidentally, most of them are hired through contract or outsourcing methods. It has been observed that payment of salary to the contract/outsourced employees is delayed substantially. There are many reasons for this. Delay in preparation of attendance sheets, delay in preparation of bills, delay in approval of bills and delay in passing the bills are some,” he said.
It looks very odd that Class I and II officers, who are generally permanent employees, get their salaries on the 1st of every month. On the contrary, the contract/ outsourced employees get their salaries only in the second or third week of the month, or even later, he said.
“The basic needs are similar and the general level of savings of Class III and Class IV employees are lesser than those of Class I and Class II employees,” he observed.
“It is the responsibility of senior IAS officers like me to monitor and ensure that all the processes related to the release of salaries to contract/outsourced employees are done on time. As it is a routine practice carried out every month, often, it gets overlooked. To ensure that this does not go out of my sight, I request you to not credit my salary starting December 1, 2019, until all contract/outsourced employees of GAD (Political) Department are paid,” he added.
