First-of-the-month promise gives way to months of waiting for Telangana’s lowest-paid staff

Thousands of workers across Telangana, including Anganwadi staff, Gram Panchayat Sarpanches, Employment Guarantee Scheme personnel and pensioners, are facing delays in salaries and honorariums. The pending payments have raised concerns over fiscal management and increased financial stress on affected families.

Hyderabad: Upon assuming power, the Congress government made a clear and repeated assurance that salaries and honorariums would be credited on the first day of every month. Two-and-a-half years later, that promise is increasingly becoming difficult to keep, with delays in salary payments being reported across several sections of the government workforce.

While pending contractor bills, retirement benefits and reimbursement claims of serving employees have already become a major challenge, the government’s cash-flow constraints appear to be spilling over into routine salary payments, raising concerns about its fiscal management.

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The worst-hit are panchayat representatives and grassroots workers. More than 12,700 newly elected Gram Panchayat Sarpanches, who assumed office in December last year, are yet to receive any honorarium. At Rs. 6,500 a month, the government is estimated to owe them over Rs. 41 crore in arrears.

Over 62,000 Anganwadi teachers and helpers have not received salaries for April and May, despite repeated assurances from the government that a decision on wage enhancement would be taken after consultations. Even as Women and Child Welfare Minister D Seethakka recently spoke of a positive decision on a salary hike, the pending wages themselves remain unpaid.

The salary crisis extends beyond these sectors. More than 12,500 personnel working under the Employment Guarantee Scheme, including field assistants, technical assistants and computer operators, are awaiting two months’ wages.

The distress is visible even within the corridors of power. Housekeeping staff at the Telangana Secretariat recently staged protests over three months of unpaid wages, stating that they were borrowing money to pay rent and meet basic household expenses. Mission Bhagiratha workers and power utility pensioners have also raised concerns over delayed payments.

Even pension payments have begun to show signs of stress. The Telangana State Electricity Employees Joint Action Committee recently urged utility managements to ensure pensions and salaries are released on the first day of every month, pointing out delays in pension disbursal.

Officially, the Finance Department has directed all departments to ensure timely salary disbursal through the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) for regular, contract, outsourcing and daily-wage employees. On the ground, however, the experience appears markedly different. Sources said the government requires less than Rs. 500 crore to clear all these pending arrears of lower-rung staff, but for reasons not known, no action has been taken so far.

The larger concern is that the burden of delayed payments is falling not on the highest-paid sections of the bureaucracy, but on contract workers, Anganwadi staff, field assistants, pensioners and village representatives who depend entirely on their modest salaries for survival. With the school reopening season adding pressure through fees, books and uniforms, many families have reportedly been pushed into debt.