Andhra follows Telangana in slashing govt salaries, citing ‘dried up’ funds

Andhra government also announced a cut in pension payments to retired government employees.

A day after the Telangana government announced slashing of salaries of its employees, the Andhra Pradesh government, too, issued orders imposing a cut in the salaries of its employees, ranging from 10 per cent to 60 per cent, alleging the finances of the state were dwindling due to the present lockdown.

Andhra government said revenue streams had dried up due to the lockdown and cited huge expenses to fight coronavirus to back salary cuts. (ANI Photo)

A government order issued around midnight on Tuesday said the salaries of various categories of employees for the month of March were being slashed since all the revenue streams of the government have “totally dried up” in view of the ongoing lockdown to fight Covid-19.

However, the government described it as partial deferment, rather than a pay cut.

As was done in Telangana, the AP government, too, announced that the “salary deferment” would be to the extent of 60 per cent for All India Service Officers like the IAS, IPS and IFS officers, while it would be 50 per cent for all the other state government employees and 10 per cent for Class IV employees like drivers and sweepers.

Similar deferment has been announced for pensions of retired employees – ranging from 50 per cent for normal retired employees and 10 per cent for Class IV retired employees.

Besides, serving and retired employees of all PSUs, government-aided institutions, universities and autonomous bodies would get only proportionate deferred payments, the order said.

However, the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government announced 100 per cent deferment of salaries for all elected public representatives – starting from chief minister, ministers, MLAs and MLCs, besides elected representatives of all urban and rural local bodies.