On smooth course at the helm, YSRCP govt hits staff barrier

The principal Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP), which has just 23 MLAs, is in disarray, and the Congress and the BJP, which do not have any presence in the Assembly, have been on the margins of state politics.

The Reddy dispensation had not expected government employees to form such a formidable opposition. It had not given permission to the employee unions to hold the rally, directing the state police not to allow demonstrators to reach Vijayawada. But the employees still managed to hold their protest event, which raised Reddy’s hackles leading to the removal of director general of police (DGP) Damodar Goutam Sawang.

Riding on his perceived popularity on the back of a slew of welfare schemes, including direct cash transfers to beneficiaries, Reddy had barely expected any challenge to his decisions from any quarters – that is until January 7, when the state government announced employees’ revised pay scale approving 23.29 per cent fitment based on the 11th Pay Revision Commission (PRC)’s recommendations. This incensed employees who were expecting a 27 per cent fitment, which the government had apparently been paying as interim relief since May 2019.

According to AP State Government Employees Joint Action Committee (JAC) chairman B Srinivasa Rao, the 23.29 per cent fitment based on new PRC report results in “lesser salary” as the amount under components such as city compensatory allowance, HRA, have been “decreased”. “We feel betrayed and won’t back down,” he said.

The employees working in the secretariat and other government offices first protested against the Government Orders on PRC and demanded that the government withdraw them. However, as the government did not make any statement, other employees unions joined in what was snowballing into a major agitation. The JAC-led stir got a shot in the arm when unions of teachers, road transport corporation, electricity department, among others, joined it.

The Reddy government constituted a committee of ministers to look into the employees’ grievances and invited the JAC for discussions, but the talks failed. And, on January 27, the JAC gave a strike notice besides calling for a protest rally at Vijayawada on February 3. By this time, nearly 14 lakhs state government employees had got united to take on the government on the issue.

Municipal administration and urban development minister, Botsa Satyanarayana, a PRC member, charged that employees were “obstinate” and were unwilling to hold talks. “Due to pandemic, the expenditure has risen and the revenues have fallen, still the CM empathised with the employees and announced PRC fitment immediately. The government has increased pay of Anganwadi workers, sanitary workers, ANMs, Home Guards and other staff. The CM has also announced that the kin of those employees who died due to Covid would be given a job by June,” he said.

“In 2020-21, the revenue dipped from the estimated Rs 82,620 crore to Rs 60,688 crore while the revenue did not come as expected and the state lost a revenue of Rs 21,000 crore due to Covid and had to spend Rs 30,000 crore to save people from it. The protesting employees should understand the huge burden on the state government,” Satyanarayana said.

The Reddy government had constituted a team of secretaries, headed by chief secretary Dr Sameer Sharma, to study the recommendations of the 11th PRC. The committee, in its report, said Andhra Pradesh was among states on top of the list in terms of revenue spent on employees’ salaries and pension, spending 36 per cent of its revenue on salaries and pensions.

The committee stated that while the state’s revenue in 2020-21 was Rs 60,668 crore, the salary bill and the pension bill for 2020-21 were Rs 37,458 crore and Rs 21,936 crore, respectively. Another Rs 7,000 crore went in salaries to nearly 4.5 lakh village and ward secretariat employees, who are responsible for delivery of government schemes to the beneficiares’ doorsteps. So, against the revenue of Rs 60,688 crore, the Andhra Pradesh government’s total salary bill in 2020-21 was over Rs 66,300 crore.

However, the protesting government staff under the aegis of the JAC stuck to their stance, deciding to go ahead with the “Chalo Vijayawada” stir.

“The state government received inputs that employees from all the 13 districts would converge at Vijayawada for the rally. There were intelligence reports about their mobilisation too,” a minister said. The government directed police to prevent government employees from travelling to Vijayawada. However, even though police in various districts stopped buses and vehicles and detained people from going to Vijayawada, thousands of them still managed to dodge the cops and their checkpoints, to make it to the rally that took the government by surprise.

TDP Politbuto member Y Ramakrishnudu said the government had not anticipated such a “massive backlash” from the employees. “The massive gathering at Vijayawada had shaken the government which is known to suppress any dissent or opposition. The DGP became the scapegoat for the government’s failure,” he said.

After the rally, while the CM sought an explanation from Sawang how thousands of employees could gather at Vijayawada, it also became clear that cops on the ground had apparently gone “soft” and “turned a blind eye” to the employees, who quietly gathered through the 2 February night for the next day’s protest event.