Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao on Monday said the State government will take serious measures to provide employment on compassionate grounds to the king of Singareni workers who die in harness, apart from ensuring hassle-free retirement benefits.
“You (members) will see good decisions shortly in this regard,” he said, responding to queries raised by the MLAs on medical board meetings and employment based on compassionate grounds during Question Hour in the State Assembly here.
“We will definitely look into it. But the candidates should have some patience as posts cannot be created for them. When posts relevant to their educational qualifications fall vacant, priority will be given to them,” he assured.
Stating that they would be taken at the general labour level initially for them to understand the company’s functioning, the Chief Minister said they will then be upgraded after some training. He asked the members to approach Energy Minister G Jagadish Reddy in case of any problem.
On the issue of Income Tax exemption to workers in mines, the Chief Minister said he had already brought the issue to the notice of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “Workers in underground mines are like soldiers who are guarding our borders. Even those working in opencast mines face problems,” he said.
Chandrashekhar said, the Prime Minister told him that if exemption was given to Singareni workers, the same facility will have to be extended to Coal India workers too. “Like the then UPA government, the BJP government speaks the same language. Nevertheless, we will continue to fight for it,” he said, adding: “We will also ask our MPs to raise the issue during the ongoing Parliament session.”
On retirement benefits, the Chief Minister said the government was considering a new system of extending retirement benefits to government employees on the same day of retirement. “We will take a policy decision soon,” he said, and recalled how he helped retired Electricity Board Chief Engineer Pandurangam from Secunderabad in getting retirement benefits. The Heads of Department should take care of the welfare of employees after their retirement, he said.
He said a comprehensive record of every employee containing all the details including their salary scale, promotions etc., should be maintained to be handed over to the employee concerned on the day of his retirement.
A programme should also be organised on the day of retirement to felicitate the employee and drop him at his house in a government vehicle. Efforts would be made to implement this practice across the State as government employees, as public servants, would have served the people for over 35 years at retirement, he pointed out.
