As promised, the Government of Andhra Pradesh has provided the employee associations the minutes of the meeting they had with the empowered Group of Ministers (GoM) on March 7.
In the minutes (a copy of which is accessed by The Hindu), provided on March 8, a day ahead of the employees’ scheduled State-wide protests from March 9 (Friday), the government gave details of the outcome of the meeting with the employee associations.
As per the minutes, the State government had agreed to clear “all the pending bills pertaining to the GPF, medical reimbursement, Employees Health Scheme (EHS), APGLI, TA, encashment of EL, and gratuity for pensioners by the end of March.”
The government had also agreed to clear the “pending DA arrears of July 1, 2018 & January 1, 2019 in instalments in two quarters by the end of September 2023.” It also promised to pay EL encashment to employees in two quarters, i.e. by the end of September 2023.
Meeting on EHS, PRC on March 16
Chief Secretary K.S. Jawahar Reddy said he would convene a meeting with the Service Associations (employee associations) to discuss all the issues related to the EHS, payment of PRC on March 16.
He said Instructions would be issued to all the Secretaries of the departments to convene meetings with the Service Associations on the first or second Monday of every month to resolve the issues pertaining to their respective departments.
Retirement age
The Chief Secretary further said he would conduct the monthly meetings to review the progress on resolving the issues and demands of the Service Associations.
He also said that a decision would be taken on enhancement of the retirement age to 62 from the existing 60 for the employees of Gurukulams and universities after adjudication of the case by the High Court of Andhra Pradesh.
Compassionate appointments
The Secretaries would also be directed to take immediate action on providing compassionate appointments to the dependents of the deceased employees who had succumbed to COVID-19.
The Chief Secretary informed that 95 of the 420 issues raised had been resolved, and that there was duplication of issues and demands raised by various associations.
Orders had been issued by the departments resolving certain issues, he said and asked the associations to bring discrepancies, if any, to the notice of the government for necessary clarification.
In respect of the unresolved issues, the Chief Secretary said instructions would be issued to all the departments to take action for resolving the same.
He further said that a large number of issues were pending with the School Education Department, and that the Minister of Education promised to review and resolve them amicably.
“The government is committed to employees’ welfare, and a major chunk of revenue is going towards disbursal of salaries and pensions. ”Buggana RajendranathFinance Minister
After the deliberations with the Service Associations, Mr. Rajendranath said that the State’s own revenue was about ₹1,25,000 crore per annum, out of which about ₹90,000 crore was being spent on payment of pensions and salaries of employees. This apart, he said the expenditure had been rising by about ₹8,000 crore to ₹9,000 crore per annum.
“In spite of the difficulties, the government is committed to the welfare of the employees and is very friendly towards them as they are a part of the government,” Mr. Rajendranath told the association leaders.
The Minister also informed them that a decision on regularisation of the services of the contract employees would be taken soon after receiving a report of the committee concerned.
The GoM comprised Ministers Buggana Rajendranath (Finance), Botcha Satyanarayana (Education), and A. Suresh (Municipal Administration and Urban Development); Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy, Adviser (Public Affairs); Chief Secretary K.S. Jawahar Reddy; and several officials.
At the meeting, the employees were represented by Bopparaju Venkateswarlu, chairman, Andhra Pradesh Joint Action Committee Amaravati; K. Venkata Rami Reddy, president, Andhra Pradesh Secretariat Association; B. Srinivasa Rao, president, APNGO’s Association; and leaders of the Employees’ Service Associations.
