Hyderabad: Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS) MLA and former Telangana minister Harish Rao on Thursday, October 17, slammed the Congress government in the state over non-payment of various payment arrears towards government employees, teachers and pensioners.
The former BRS minister questioned the state Congress about promising to clear three dearness allowances (DA) as soon as coming into power in Telangana as allegedly promised in their election manifesto during the run-up to the Assembly elections in 2023.
He accused the government of not fulfilling the promised payments, and increasing the pending arrears to five DA payments.
Harish Rao pointed out that Revanth Reddy had made repeated promises of clearing the DA arrears, including promising to discuss the matter at the following day’s cabinet meeting, during the parliamentary elections.
The former minister said that the government employees including teachers and pensioners are losing Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 each month due to non-payment of the five DA arrears, even after 10 months of Congress government in the office.
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The BRS leader’s comments came in the wake of the Union government announcing a three percent dearness allowance to government employees, as its Diwali gift. Harish Rao demanded that the government address the issue during the upcoming cabinet meeting, scheduled to be held on October 23.
Harish Rao also highlighted that around 5,000 new state government pensioners in the state, who retired after March 31 this year, are still waiting to receive their retirement benefits including General Provident Fund (GPF), leave encashment, gratuity, insurance, and commutation dues.
The former minister said that non-payment of the dues is creating hardships for retirees as they are forced to run around the Secretariat, and demanded their dues to be cleared immediately.
Harish Rao also urged the government to implement Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) and a new Employee Health Scheme (EHS), for the benefits of the government employees in the state.
