Eat half of what you’re now eating, says Telangana CM who cuts government salaries and pensions

• The Telangana government slashed salaries of civil servants — IAS (Indian Administrative Services), IPS (Indian Police Service), IFS (Indian Foreign Services) and other officers — by 60%.
  
• The pension of the retired government employees will also be trimmed to half.
  
• The state Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said that his salary would also get deducted by a whopping 75% to back the state’s finances and economy.
  
• This comes after the revenue department reported a loss of ₹12,000 crore.
  

The outbreak of Coronavirus triggered massive unemployment on one hand, and also impacted salaries, pension and appraisals.

In a surprise move, the Telangana government slashed the salaries of civil servants — IAS (Indian Administrative Services), IPS (Indian Police Service), IFS (Indian Foreign Services) and other officers — by 60%. While the pension of the retired government employees will also be trimmed to half.

“The coronavirus is adversely impacting Telangana’s economic situation. In this background, the state government has to act with caution and foresight,” the official statement said.

In fact, the state chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said that his salary would also get deducted by a whopping 75% to back the state’s finances and economy. Other political members — including state ministers and MLAs (Members of the Legislative Assembly) will also have to offer three-fourth of their salary to the government.

This comes on the backdrop of mounting losses reported by the revenue department, thanks to the nationwide lockdown that has put a halt to all the services. That accounts to ₹12,000 crore.

“The state treasury needs to get Rs 12,000 crore since March 15. Everything is shut — petrol, GST, excise. So, we may have to cut salaries of MLAs and government employees. People have to cooperate – we are in a crisis, this is not a luxury. You have to eat half of what you were eating before,” Rao said.

However, the least affected would be the contractual employees — who will have to share 10% of their pay. The move will also impact the employees of the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) and other government aided institutions — including Human Rights Commission.

“For all public sector undertakings and institutions that are receiving government grants employees, like government employees and retirees, there will be a cut in their salaries,” the statement noted.

The state government said that it will contribute nearly ₹500 crore to tackle the pandemic. However, they might need to spend more as the number of infections spiked to 71, leaving eight dead, as on Monday (March 30).

"Six people from Telangana who attended a religious congregation at Markaz in Nizamuddin area of New Delhi from 13-15 March succumbed after they contracted coronavirus. Two died in Gandhi Hospital while one each died in Apollo Hospital, Global Hospital, Nizamabad and Gadwal,” Telangana CMO tweeted.


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