Hyderabad Dec. 11: The revenue minister, Mr D. Prasada Rao, on Thursday, took a delegation of village servants to task and called their demand for salary hike unjust. The delegation of AP Grama Seavakula Sangham (village servants association) went to the minister’s chamber to submit a memorandum seeking increase in their salary from Rs 1,835 to Rs 3,000 and filling up of vacancies. The association had already served a strike notice. As soon as the delegation entered his chambers, the minister shouted at them for serving the strike notice. The minister wondered why the association remained silent when the previous Telugu Desam government did not increase salary by a single rupee. “On the contrary we effected hike thrice in four years,” he pointed out.
Mr Prasada Rao said it was for the first time that the Congress government recognised village servants as revenue employees and extended several facilities. Never in the past these village servants got promotions. The government will go to people to explain the facts and expose the double standards of the association. The minister accused the association of catering to the Left parties’ interests. “You are being used as pawns,” he said adding that the sole aim of the Left was to defeat the Congress and help the TD.
Shocked at the minister’s reaction, the delegation assured that they would not participate in the strike but the government should be sympathetic to their demand. “After all a daily labourer earns more than us,” said association president, Mr K. Gopala Rao. The minister, however, made it clear that any proposal for hike would be considered only in the next financial year.
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