The State Government has conceded the demand of the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation employees to treat the period of their absence during the Sakala Janula Samme at the peak of agitation for separate statehood as special leave.
The Transport Department has issued an order accordingly, but with conditions. In the order issued on Tuesday, it said the period of absence of employees from September 19, 2011 to October 17, 2011, (27 days) will be treated as special casual leave instead of earned leave. The Department recalled the order issued in past treating the agitation period between September 13, 2011 to October 24, 2011 as special casual leave to the employees belonging to local, district, zonal and multi-zonal cadre falling entirely under Telangana and credit the earned leave which was debited during the strike period for the in-service, retired and dead employees also.
With close to 50,000 employees taking part in the strike, the burden on the government on account of treating the strike period as special leave would be around ₹80 crore.
“This is a conservative estimate as the calculation has been made on the basis of the scales that were existing before the formation of the State. The burden will be much higher if calculated on the basis of present scales as salaries have been significantly hiked since the formation of Telangana,” a senior official said.