AP govt denies charges of delayed salaries

Vijayawada: The three lakh-odd government employees are watching with wry amusement the infighting among the rival associations even as the Andhra Pradesh State Finance Department squarely dismissed as untrue and figment of imagination the reports published in a section of the media over delayed disbursal of salaries and pending demands.

The trouble sparked off as a delegation led by AP Government Employees' Association (APGEA) president K R Suryanarayana represented Governor Biswa Bhushan Harichandan recently over undue delay in payment of salaries leading to default in auto debit of EMIs for housing and other loans from their bank accounts and ignoring other demands.

This promptly led to allegations against him by APNGOs Association's newly elected president Bandi Srinivasa Rao who questioned their decision to meet the Governor at a time when they are trying to resolve issues amicably by holding talks with the government. He also met Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy along with others to seek his intervention to concede their just demands. He accused Suryanarayana of trying to create a rift among employees and spread wrong propaganda that APNGOs Association is not pursuing the pending demands with the authorities.

The internecine trouble within the associations subsequently led to severe criticism against the government over delayed disbursal of salaries and concealing information regarding precarious financial status.

In a strongly-worded statement, a top official of the Finance Department said notwithstanding the challenges posed by Covid-19 and other problems, they had implemented pay and pension revision for employees and retired employees, released DA arrears, absorbed APSRTC employees/sachivalayam staff in government service and increased the retirement age. He stated that they issued comprehensive orders vide G O Ms No 1 Finance (PC-TA) Department, dated January 17, 2022 for implementation of Revised Pay Scales, 2022 for all government employees including local bodies and aided institutions which includes aided polytechnics and the work-charged establishment in receipt of pay in regular pay scale in the Scales of Pay, 2015.

The financial implication of pay revision was stated to be over Rs 10,000 crore. Pay revision was done for 3.01 lakh employees of various categories like Anganwadi and Asha workers. IR amounted to Rs 11,984 crore to the employees, and Rs 5,933 crore for pensioners totalling to Rs 17,918 crore.

Despite the tough challenges, the government said it has taken a series of measures to ensure that salaries and pensions are paid in time. "On an average 90-95 per cent of the salary and pension bills will be passed by the treasury by the last working day of the month and the same are released before fifth of the following month depending on the RBI/bank holidays, ways and means position of the State. Remaining bills will be passed as and when they are cleared by the treasury," the statement pointed out. The government claimed that this is the general practice earlier as well as at present. "The general allegations that the salaries and pensions are getting delayed during the current government based on very rare exceptions do not truly reflect the ground reality."

In fact, the government took several steps to make timely payment to employees. Instructions were issued to all the Drawing and Disbursing Officers (DDOs) to start processing the salary and pension bills from 16th itself and complete by 24th of a month and the treasury to complete the audit by month-end so that salaries and pensions for the majority can be paid on the first working day of the following month, the Finance Department clarified.