TS employees sore over Seemandhra staff cornering ‘T increment’

• As many as one lakh employees who have their roots in Seemandhra to get salary hike
• It imposes additional burden between Rs.90 and 100 crore on Telangana government

Hyderabad: "In token of appreciation of the role played by the employees in the Telangana movement, the government has decided to sanction a special increment under the name Telangana increment to employees to mark fulfilment of longstanding demand for formation of separate Telangana State".

This is what government order, GO-23 issued on August 13 has stated regarding special increment for government employees.

Around 4.03 lakh government employees, including gazetted, non-gazetted and fourth class employees, in 10 districts stand to benefit from this announcement. Special increment will be added to their salaries in August. August salaries will be paid on September 1.

However, Telangana protagonists are not too pleased with this announcement. They argue that apart from natives of the Telangana State, around one lakh non-Telangana employees too, majority of them who took part in Samaikyandhra movement, have been given the benefit. A Telangana State employee leader pointed out that data collected by war room showed that around 40,000 employees, who have their roots in Seemandhra regions, have got postings in all 10 districts of Telangana in violation of 610 GO, Presidential Order, among others. On one hand, the TRS government has opposed their presence in the Telangana region, and on the other hand, it has extended the monetary benefits to them too, he said.

Considering that the average increment per each employee is Rs 750, TS government needs to incur an extra burden of around Rs 40 crore a year by extending benefit to the Seemandhra employees working in the Telangana State.

If the non-local quota in districts, zonal and multi-zonal posts as per Presidential Order is also taken into consideration, close to one lakh employees hailing from residuary Andhra Pradesh state would be benefited. This means the burden on the government exchequer would be roughly in the range of Rs 90 to 100 crore a year, the TS employees unions said.

Meanwhile, Telangana Lecturers Forum president Kathi Venkataswamy said the government had taken the decision on extending special increment to the employees without making proper exercise. He felt that government should have identified Telangana State employees eligible for increment or waited for completion of staff distribution exercise between the two states.