CM KCR declares holiday on October 26

The Chief Minister asked officials to declare holiday every year on the next day of Dasara festival.

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has declared a holiday on Monday (October 26) for all government offices and all educational institutions. In effect, there will be a two-day holiday for Dasara, which is falling on Sunday (October 25).

According to an official press release here on Friday, the Chief Minister asked officials to declare the next day of Dasara a holiday as well every year and directed them to prepare a schedule as per the new directions. Several employee unions have represented earlier asking for a holiday on Monday taking the example of the Central government, which declared October 26 as a restricted holiday for its employees.

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The Chief Minister said this at Pragathi Bhavan when the representatives of Telangana Gazetted Officers Association (TGOA), Telangana Non Gazetted Officers Association (TNGO), Class IV Employees and Drivers Association met him and handed over a letter of consent to donate cumulative one-day salary of Rs 33 crore to the CMRF.

Call for a change in DA policy

The Chief Minister called for a change in the way the Dearness Allowance (DA) was being estimated. “At present, the Centre takes a decision on DA and all the State governments follow it. The process takes time as the Centre delays the estimates. Because of the delay, the States also fall behind resulting in the accumulation of pending DAs, thereby employees not receiving the allowance in time,” he observed.

The Chief Minister said the DA to be paid must be decided every six months. “Changes can be made after the Centre declares its decision. For instance, the State could go ahead and announce 3 per cent DA and implement the decision. If the Centre declares DA as 3.5 per cent then the remaining 0.5 per cent can be paid later. If it is 2.5 per cent, the difference can be deducted before payment,” he suggested.

He directed the officials concerned to prepare proposals and said the State Cabinet would take a decision on the new policy. He directed the Finance Department to pay one DA to employees due to them from July 1 of 2019. The Chief Minister also announced that very soon he would meet with leaders of employees associations and try to solve all the problems.

TGO president V Mamatha, general secretary A Satyanarayana, TNGO president Mamilla Rajender, general secretary Rayakanti Pratap and Class IV employees Association president Gaddam Gyaneshwar were among the others that met the Chief Minister.

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