Earned leave for AP, TS Ministers?

• Both State budgets provide for encashment of leave facility
• Former FM Anam and former Speaker Nadendla surprised
• They contend that there is no provision for leave application

Hyderabad: Are the Ministers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh entitled to earned leave facility as government employees?

Both budgets of Telangana and AP propose a demand for ‘Encashment of Earned Leave’ under the head of Salaries of Council of Ministers.

However, senior officials from the finance and general administration departments of both the states as well as former Finance Minister A Ramanaryan Reddy and former Speaker N Manhohar contend that there is such provision for the council of ministers.

Both Reddy and Manohar told The Hans India that as the legislators are elected under the People’s Representation Act, such rules are not applicable to them. Even when a minister goes out of country, all that he or she does is inform the Chief Minister. For administrative purposes, the CM delegates the portfolio to some other minister or would keep it with himself until the minister returns. If the Assembly is in session, then the Ministers have to inform the presiding officer about the duration of their absence.

As such, when there is no provision to apply for leave, how does the issue of ‘encashment of leave’ arise at all, they wonder. What is more interesting is that the provision for ‘encashment of leave’ was published in the second volume of the budget estimates of Andhra Pradesh state for 2014-15 financial year, on page 8 under the major head of ‘101, Salary of Ministers and Deputy Ministers.’ The same provision appears in the same place in the TS budget estimates as well.