Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has said that the revenue growth of the State government went down 16 % but it was not negative on account of economic slowdown.
The growth rate was 21 % in the previous five years but only 5 % this year, he told a press conference here on Saturday after the Cabinet meeting.
A disciplined fiscal policy of the government across sectors helped in ensuring that the growth rate did not turn negative. It was only the transport sector where the growth rate was negative but even that has looked up now after the festival season.
Welfare priority
The government worked with long-term goals reaching out with welfare measures to every household.
Welfare was the top priority of the government, he said and released a list of hike in salaries of staff in 23 departments. The objective was to give them a dignified way of life. The striking RTC staff got 67 % pay hike in four years after TRS came to power.
‘Illegal strike’
He denied the government was trying to bulldoze the RTC workers into joining duties. It was left to them to join duties or not.
Their strike was declared illegal by the Joint Commissioner of Labour who initiated the conciliation process, the Chief Minister asserted. Hence, the connect between the RTC management and workers had ceased. Yet, the government decided to give them one more opportunity.
The Cabinet discussed 49 issues, including sanction of one more instalment of dearness allowance payable to government staff.
