Decision on salaries by end of Sept

HYDERABAD: The State government would take a decision by the end of this month about how and when to pay deferred salaries to legislators, All India Service (AIS) officers, State government employees and pensioners.Finance Minister T Harish Rao, in his reply to the debate on the Telangana Disaster and Public Health Emergency (Special Provisions) Bill, 2020 in the State Legislative Assembly on Monday, said that the salaries of legislators and State employees had been deferred because of a fall in the State’s revenue following the lockdown.  

Harish Rao said that the State government’s revenue was just Rs 577 crore in April this year due to Covid-19. The salaries of the employees would be paid at a later date. A decision to this effect would be taken by the end of this month, he said.Harish said that in the first five months of this fiscal, the revenue target was Rs 75,125 crore. But, the actual revenue was Rs 49,131 crore. There was a decrease of Rs 7,851 crore in the State Own Revenue (SOR), he added.

The Assembly also approved the Telangana Public Employment (Regulation of Age of Superannuation) (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which was intended to increase the age of AYUSH doctors from 58 to 65 years. Reservations in new varsities Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy said that the managements of the new private universities established in the State would take a decision on providing reservations to students. In reply to the debate on the Telangana State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) (Amendment) Bill, 2020 in the Assembly, the Minister said that the new varsities were under two categories. Existing colleges which got university status were brownfield universities and those started afresh were greenfield universities. 

The reservations and fee reimbursement would be continued for old courses in brownfield universities, Sabitha said. She said that the government got proposals for establishing eight private universities. Out of these five were sanctioned and three were under consideration. However, Congress member D Sridhar Babu wondered how a Cabinet Minister, whose institution too got university status, would continue in the Cabinet. Sridhar Babu demanded that the State provide grants to government universities and instil confidence in students. 

Eight Bills
The Assembly adopted eight Bills on Monday including the Telangana Goods and Services Tax (Second Amendment) Bill, 2020, the Telangana Court Fees and Suits Valuation (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Telangana Civil Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2020.