E-Paper
Amid Covid-19 pandemic, Telangana cuts salaries to overcome financial crisis
As Telangana stares at a financial meltdown amid the coronavirus pandemic, there is no clarity on how long pay cuts would be in force .
The Telangana government on Monday announced drastic pay cuts for all its employees, bureaucrats and public representatives in the wake of a crippling financial position of the state on account of coronavirus that has affected 77 people so far.
The pay cuts range from a minimum of 10 per cent to a maximum of 75 per cent
A decision to this effect was taken at a high-level meeting convened by chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao at his camp office Pragati Bhavan to review the state’s financial position which has turned precarious due to fall in the state’s own revenues and also in the devolution of funds from the Centre.
Follow coronavirus updates here.
A statement from the chief minister’s office said there would be 75 per cent cut in the salaries of the chief minister, his cabinet colleagues, MLAs, MLCs, chairpersons of various state-level corporations and representatives of urban and rural local bodies.
Salaries of all India service officers including those in the IAS, IPS and IFS will be slashed by 60 per cent.
But there was no clarity on how long pay cuts would be in force except that the March salaries to be paid on April will come under the order.
In all the other categories of state government employees, including teachers, gazetted and non-gazetted offices, there would be a 50 per cent cut in their monthly salaries. “However, in the case of Class IV employees like peons, sweepers and drivers, and also outsourced and contract employees, the salary cut would be restricted to 10 per cent,” the statement said.
Even retired employees of the state government have not been spared. While pensions of all categories of retired employees will be cut by 50 per cent, retired Class IV employees will see their pensions drop by 10 per cent.
Similar salary cuts would be imposed in the case of employees working in all public sector undertakings and those operating with government grants-in-aid, the statement said.
