Jagan gives 23% pay hike to govt employees, retirement age upped to 62 years

In a new year bonanza for Andhra Pradesh government employees, the state Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy announced a slew of benefits including upping the retirement age from 60 to 62 years; pegged the Pay Revision Commission (PRC) at 23 per cent and gave a timeline for the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

He also announced housing plots for those employees who don’t have houses, compassionate appointments for family members of employees who had died of Covid among other benefits. These announcements were made by the CM a day after holding discussions with employee associations on the implementation of the PRC.

Addressing a meeting with various Employees Unions on Friday (January 7), the CM announced a fitment of 23 percent though the recommendation was for 14.29 per cent. He has also significatnly increased the retirement age from 60 years to 62 years. This extension rule, which will come into effect from this January, has been given to make better use of the services of the senior employees.

The announced fitment is almost 9 per cent more than what was suggested by the Chief Secretary Committee and will be in retrospective effect from July 1, 2018, he said.

According to media reports, Jagan said that the monetary benefits will be applied from April 1, 2020 and the enhanced pay scale along with pending DA’s will come into effect from January 2022. This move will put an additional burden of ₹10,247 crore on the state treasury, he said. Also, all the pending arrears like PF, GLI and leave encashments will be cleared by April 2022, he added.

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He also clarified that a decision will be made by the end of June on the issue of CPS since a Cabinet sub-committee had already been formed.

Further, CM Reddy promised that the family members of the employees who had died of COVID-19, will get jobs on compassionate grounds by the end of June. He has also set up a committee headed by the Chief Secretary to revamp the Employee Health Scheme (EHS) so that the scheme can be implemented better.

CM Reddy also announced that houses will be provided to those employees who don’t own a house. This will be done by reserving 10 per cent of the plots in MIG layouts in Jagananna Smart Townships and a 20 per cent rebate will be provided. The CM said this facility is being offered to ensure that no employee is deprived of housing, he said. Moreover, the CM said that many states were already implementing the central government’s pay revision and mentioned that the state government will also henceforth do the same.