The suspense over the contents of the report submitted by the Pay Revision Commission headed by retired bureaucrat C.R. Biswal, the first constituted after the formation of Telangana, continues.
Three weeks after the commission members submitted their report to Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, the government is yet to circulate the copies of the report or at least the executive summary to the stakeholders, including the representatives of the recognised employees unions. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao has announced constitution of high power committee headed by the Chief Secretary and comprising Principal Finance Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao and Water Resources Department Principal Secretary Rajat Kumar as its members immediately after the submission of the report by the commission.
The committee was directed to study the report in detail and hold discussions with the employees unions to understand their aspirations before taking a final call on the issues like fitment benefit that should be given to the employees. Three weeks passed since its constitution, the committee is yet to meet formally to study the contents of the report, leave alone inviting the employees’ representatives for talks. While there were speculations over the quantum of the fitment benefit that is likely to be awarded initially, the talk among the employees is now focused on whether the PRC had made any recommendations on pay revision at all. The government awarded 43% fitment for employees of all cadres against the 29% fitment recommended by the previous PRC.
Though no date for the formal meeting of the three member committee has been finalised yet, sources said “the meeting can happen at a short notice as all the ground work has been completed.”
One major thing the government is working on is said to be the financial burden that the implementation of the PRC recommendations will have on the government’s ex-chequer as it will be a recurring one, not a one-time measure. Moreover, due consideration should also be given to the payment of arrears that will be due from July 1, 2018 in case the government wants to implement it with retrospective effect. Employees, meanwhile, are apparently becoming impatient over, what they call, the inordinate delays in announcing the fitment benefit long overdue. A delegation of the employees’ unions which called on the Chief Secretary on Wednesday expressed their dissatisfaction over the delays in circulating the PRC recommendations and extending invitation to the employees for talks. The delegation reportedly told the Chief Secretary that they would wait till Friday for an announcement failing which they would seek audience with the Chief Minister himself for representing their grievances.
