Hyderabad: Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President & Nalongda MP N. Uttam Kumar Reddy strongly condemned the Pay Revision Commission (PRC) for recommending a Fitment of a mere 7.5% and alleged that the PRC’s recommendations appear to be dictated by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao. He demanded that the State Government provide a fitment of not less than 43% to the employees.
Reddy, along with MLC T. Jeevan Reddy, TPCC Working President Ponnam Prabhakar, and other leaders, was addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Thursday.
Uttam said that the fitment of 7.5% was unrealistic and too below the expectations of government employees. He announced that the Congress party would support the agitation by the government seeking at least 43% fitment. He said that the government employees have played a major role in Telangana statehood agitation.
He said the employees risked their jobs and careers by launching ‘Sakala Janula Samme’. They expected a better future for themselves and their children after the formation of Telangana. However, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao shattered their dreams and continuously subjected them to injustices. He said KCR’s decisions have been causing huge pain and mental agony to the government staff.
The TPCC Chief also condemned the PRC’s recommendation for reducing the House Rent Allowance by up to 6%. He said that the PRC has failed to consider the inflation factor while recommending cuts in HRA. It appears, he said, that the PRC has drafted its entire report under the influence of CM KCR. He demanded that there should not be any cut in the HRA and instead it should be increased substantially.
He also said that the PRC has identified nearly 1.91 lakh vacancies in various departments of the State Government. He said that the Chief Minister has been misleading the people of Telangana by giving contradicting and false figures of existing vacancies.
He pointed out that CM KCR has recently issued a statement announcing that the State Government would fill 50,000 vacancies in different departments, which is about one-fourth of actual vacancies. He said that the TRS party came to power in 2014 on the promise of fulfilling one lakh vacancies and the promise was repeated more than twice on the floor of the Assembly by CM KCR. However, he said not even 25% of vacancies were filled by the TRS Government in the last seven years.
He demanded that the State Government take immediate measures to fill all 1.91 lakh vacancies on a war footing basis.
The TPCC Chief said that it was highly shameful for the TRS Government to keep over 1.91 lakh posts vacant in different departments. He also condemned the role being played by some leaders of employees’ unions. He alleged that a few union leaders were acting at the behest of CM KCR and not fighting to protect the interest of employees. He advised the employees to launch agitation against the TRS Govt seeking justice.
He reminded that the previous Congress Govt was an employee-friendly government and implemented PRCs at regular intervals besides extending all facilities to the staff.
“Uttam asks Youth Congress to lead agitation against unemployment”
Uttam Kumar Reddy later participated in the ceremony of taking over charge by newly-elected Telangana Youth Congress president K. Shiv Sena Reddy and other office-bearers.
Addressing the gathering, Reddy said that the Youth Congress activists must lead the fight against the injustices being done to youth, both at the national and state level. He alleged that both Prime Minister Narender Modi and CM KCR have failed to address the problem of rising unemployment. “While KCR had promised to give one job for every household, PM Modi has promised 2 crore jobs every year. As against this promise, TRS Govt did not provide one job even for a village or town and PM Modi did not create even 2 lakh jobs every year ever since they came to power in 2014. Instead, crores of existing jobs were lost due to their wrong economic policies and decisions,” he said.
Referring to the latest findings in the Oxfam report released this week, Uttam said that a total of 12.2 crore people lost their jobs during the lockdown period alone. Of them, nearly 9.2 crore jobs were lost in the informal sector. He said neither PM Modi nor CM KCR displayed any concern over the rising unemployment in the country, especially Telangana. He said both BJP Govt at the Centre and TRS Govt in Telangana failed to take initiatives to help the jobless youth. He also pointed out that TRS Govt has failed to fulfill the promise of providing unemployment allowance of Rs. 3,016 per month to the jobless youth. He said this was one of the major electoral promises made by TRS in the 2018 Assembly elections and it remained unfilled even after two years.
He asked the Youth Congress leaders to launch a massive agitation against the TRS and BJP Govts for their failure to control the rising unemployment. He said 1.91 lakh vacancies in the State Govt, unemployment allowance of Rs. 3,016 to jobless youth and other issues concerning the youth would be the main plank on which Congress party would contest the MLC elections in two Graduate constituencies and Nagarjuna Sagar bye-election. He said that the Congress party would seek a referendum from youth on the failure of Modi Govt at the Centre and KCR Govt in Telangana. He said the defeat of TRS and BJP in these elections would pressurise both the governments to fulfill their electoral promise.
