Two years of Congress sees employee unrest, governance breakdown in Telangana

Protests inside the Telangana Secretariat have intensified as employees, contract workers and retired staff continue to demand pending dues, regularisation and promised benefits. With growing dissatisfaction among officials and workers, the tensions highlight a governance system struggling to address core issues

Hyderabad: Telangana is perhaps the only State where the Secretariat, not outside its perimeter but within the very walls of the administrative nerve centre, has turned into a frequent venue for protests by government employees, home guards, Anganwadi teachers, retired staff, RTC personnel and sanitation workers, apart from contractors.

Over the last two years, employees have been pressing for pending Dearness Allowances and implementation of Pay Revision Commission recommendations among other demands. Contract workers have been staging protests seeking regularisation of their services, while retired employees waiting for their hard-earned benefits are facing misery.

In what was said to be the first such protest in the State, family members of police personnel from different battalions staged demonstrations inside the Secretariat in October last year, demanding that the government scrap haphazard and illogical transfers and postings, and revise long work schedules.

While the Congress government claims salaries are being credited on the first of every month, employees continue to demonstrate, demanding fulfilment of promises made by the party.

Listing 51 demands, the Telangana Employees, Gazetted Officers, Teachers, Workers and Pensioners Joint Action Committee planned a three-month protest in October last. However, after the State government sought time and constituted a Cabinet Sub-Committee under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, the protest was called off. But nothing much happened after that, and TGEJAC members are still raising their voice for their demands, especially five pending DAs, arrears, abolition of the E-Kuber system, 51 per cent fitment, issue of health cards and more.

As issues continued to mount, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy made a startling admission in March this year. Claiming that the government was unable to raise loans as none trusted it, he said at a programme in Ravindra Bharathi that Rs 8,000 crore was due towards retirement benefits. On average, 1,000 employees retire each month, and about 10,000 by year-end. If an attender retires, nearly Rs 50 lakh must be paid, and if a gazetted officer retires, Rs 1.15 crore to Rs 1.20 crore, he noted, asking: “From where do we get these funds?”

Though Rs 500 crore has been released monthly in the last couple of months towards clearing pending bills, employees are demanding release of the actual requirement of Rs 1,500 crore a month.

In its manifesto before the Assembly elections, Congress promised Anganwadi teachers and workers a hike in monthly salaries to Rs 18,000. Even after two years, the government has not fulfilled that promise, forcing them to protest even at the Chief Minister’s residence in Kodangal and at the Secretariat.

It is not only the widening rift between the government and employees. Several IAS officers have reportedly been ignoring the Chief Minister’s instructions. Despite repeated directions to conduct field inspections, most Collectors have not complied. Irked, Revanth Reddy openly directed them to change their approach, even admitting he was clueless about which direction the system was heading, reflecting his unhappiness with a few officers.

Like the Chief Minister, a few Ministers too have expressed displeasure over IAS officers’ conduct. On October 23 this year, Excise Minister Jupally Krishna Rao lodged a complaint with Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao, accusing senior IAS officer S A M Rizvi of negligence and creating hurdles in development.

Rizvi quit service after differences cropped up over allocation of work related to fixing holograms on liquor bottles. His resignation caused a political uproar, with opposition parties demanding the government clear the allegations. The Minister, however, claimed Rizvi had applied for VRS after securing a job at AIG Hospitals with a monthly salary of Rs 10 lakh.

In short, protests inside the Secretariat are not just about broken promises but a stark symbol of a governance system in complete breakdown.