Hyderabad: The former opposition leader Mohammed Ali Shabbir wrote a letter to chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao to regularise the services of the employees of Makkah and Shahi mosques.
Mohammed Ali Shabbir condemned the decision to declare these employees as outsourced staff and demanded to revoke it.
The Department of Minority Welfare has issued a circular to declared the services of the said two mosques’ employees as outsourced with effect from March 31.
The circular caused a widespread disquiet among the said employees, their families and Muslims.
Mohammed Ali Shabbir in his open letter urged the TRS Government to withdraw the said circular forthwith. He charged the Government with doing injustice to the employees of both the historic mosques who are diligently serving for many years on meager salaries.
According to Mohammed Ali Shabbir, in case of their being declared as outsourced contract employees, they would not get any increase in their salaries and other benefits.
The state government recently announced a 30% fitment for government employees and increased their retirement age from 58 to 61 but the same government considers 30 employees of historical mosques as a burden on the exchequer.
The state government has prepared rules for the employees of all big temples and paying them salaries and other facilities at par with the government employees.
But surprisingly, the same state government is not showing any interest in regularising services of the city’s historic mosques.
“Khatib, Imam, and Moazzan are venerable positions and the government must abstain from their disrespect. The retirement age of these mosques’ employees is 65 years. They are entitled to 15 days of paid leave per year. Similarly, they are entitled to get Rs.3 lakhs at the time of their retirement. In case of their being declared as the outsourced staff they would lose all these facilities,” Mohammed Ali Shabbir said.
“Increase the salaries of both the mosques’ employees and withdraw the circular declaring their services as outsourced and maintain the status quo in practice since 1976,” demanded Mohammed Ali Shabbir.
