In a major relief to employees and pensioners, the State government has cleared their pending medical reimbursement bills.
Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has released ₹180.38 crore towards clearing the bills benefiting 26,519 employees/pensioners who are making rounds to the Secretariat and other offices regularly for more than two years now. The development follows the recent hike in the dearness allowance and an additional DA announced to the staff.
The Deputy Chief Minister also cleared bills pending from the previous government. Bills pending since March 4, 2023 to June 20 this year have been cleared in the process. Mr. Bhatti Vikramarka, who is the chairman of the cabinet sub-committee on employees’ welfare, took the initiative to release the funds as assured to the employees. The release comes after the government completed crediting of ₹9,000 crore into farmers’ accounts as part of Rythu Bharosa, farmers investment support scheme.
The amount, according to officials, was released in spite of the financial constraints and implementation of a spree of welfare schemes. Officials said that the recent hike in DA benefiting 3.5 lakh employees and over 3 lakh pensioners would impose additional burden of ₹2,400 crore a month on the State exchequer.
The government had also issued orders approving an increase in cadre strength in the Women & Child Welfare and Planning departments, besides initiating the process for constituting a joint staff council to resolve issues of employees and officers in a time-bound manner. This is in addition to steps that were initiated to classify village panchayats into four grades based on population and a comprehensive health insurance scheme for employees/pensioners, which was in the offing. The government had also constituted departmental promotion committees at various levels, which were actively working on the process.