Employees’ retirement benefits hit as fund crunch hurts T’gana
Telangana retirees face delays in receiving ₹8,000 crore in benefits due to financial strain, with many now seeking court intervention for payments.
C Radhakrishna, a senior lecturer in Telangana government polytechnic college at Siddipet, retired from service on attaining the age of superannuation On August 31 last year,.
Days before his retirement, he submitted all the relevant documents to get his retirement benefits from the state government and was hoping that the amount would be credited to his account within a few days, if not on the same date of completing his service.
“I was supposed to get around ₹1 crore in the form of various retirement benefits; and I thought I would happily spend my retired life without worrying about any monetary problems. But I have not got a single penny from the government till date and for the last seven months, I have been running from pillar to post to get my money,” Radhakrishna lamented.
So is the case with M Karunakar, who retired as section superintendent in a government hospital in Hyderabad in November last year. “I have to get retirement benefits of around ₹50 lakh but not a single rupee has been credited to my account so far, though I submitted all the papers required to obtain the retirement benefits. I have been eagerly waiting for the money, which I badly need to clear my loans and save for future needs,” he said.
As per the service rules of the Telangana government, an employee will be entitled to get gratuity (subject to a maximum of ₹16 lakh), leave encashment (subject to a maximum of 300 days) and lump sum commutation pension amount (20 times of the basic pay) at the end of their retirement period.
Besides, the biggest retirement benefit would be the refund of savings of the employees in the form of General Provident Fund, which would be deducted from their salaries every month all through their service period. “This is our money and the government has to return it along with 8% interest,” Radhakrishna said.
In addition, the government will also have to refund contributions of employees to life insurance and group insurance policies, besides calculating the monthly pension, for which the retiring employees are eligible. “At present, we are getting only a monthly pension,” Kannaiah said.
For the Telangana government, which has been struggling to pay salaries to its employees every month because of severe financial crunch, clearing of dues to be paid to the retired employees has become a humongous task.
Speaking at a function after distributing appointment letters to the newly-recruited lecturers in Ravindra Bharathi in Hyderabad on March 20, chief minister A Revanth Reddy admitted that his government is facing a tough situation in clearing the retirement benefits of the employees after their superannuation.
“A lower-level retired state employee is entitled to get not less than ₹50 lakh towards his retirement benefits. Similarly, an average gazetted employee will have to be paid a lump sum amount of ₹1.15 crore to ₹1.25 crore after his retirement. Where would I get money to pay these legitimate benefits to the retired employees?” Revanth Reddy said.
He pointed out that since April 2024, around 800-1,000 employees have been retiring from service every month. “My information is that so far, around 10,000 employees have retired till date since last April; and the government is due to pay around ₹8,000 crore to them towards retirement benefits. Every month, another ₹100 crore is adding to these already piled up dues. We are not able to get even loans to pay them,” the chief minister said.
A finance department official, who refused to be named, said between April 1 and December 31, 2024, as many as 7,995 employees, including 1,419 gazetted officers, 5,360 non-gazetted officers and 1,216 lower-rung staff, laid down their office on attaining the age of superannuation.
“The number would go up to around 10,000 by March 31 this year. In the calendar year 2025, as many as 9,630 employees are going to retire and in 2026, this would be around 9,700,” he said.
According to Telangana state non-gazetted officers’ association (TNGOs) president Maram Jagadeeshwar, the retired employees are entitled to get ₹8,200 crore in the form of retirement benefits, along with interest.
“We understand the financial position of the state government. But there is no option before the government but to pay the retirement benefits to the employees. We have asked the government to make allocations in the budget towards the retirement benefits and clear them over a period of time,” the TNGO leader said.
WHY THIS CRISIS NOW?
It had been a common phenomenon that every year, the employees retired from the service and the government would pay them retirement benefits which they were entitled to. More often than not, they would get their retirement benefits within a week or two after retiring from service.
The problem began in 2021, when the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi government led by K Chandrasekhar Rao suddenly enhanced the age of superannuation from 58 to 61 years with effect from March, 2021.
“It was a surprise on us, as no employee asked for the enhancement of retirement age. Apparently, the BRS government was facing a severe financial crisis and had no money in the kitty to pay the retirement benefits to the employees. So, it deferred the payments by three years to overcome the immediate financial burden,” Jagadeeshwar said.
For the next three years, there were no retirements from the Telangana government and thousands of employees continued in the service. “They started retiring from service only from March 30, 2024 and the onus of paying them retirement benefits fell on the incumbent Revanth Reddy government, which is now struggling,” the TNGO leader said.
As the state government is struggling to clear their retirement dues, some of the retired employees have started approaching the state high court, seeking justice. “A few employees got favourable orders from the high court a couple of months ago and managed to get their retirement benefits from the government. This led to a flurry of petitions in the high court,” said senior high court advocate C R Sukumar, who fought the cases on behalf of a couple of employees.
The finance department official quoted above said the government was releasing ₹6,500 crore every month for payments of salaries and pensions on time. "It is planning to earmark ₹500 crore towards clearance of dues of retirement benefits. It is grossly insufficient, but it has to make a beginning and the amount will be gradually increased," he said.
