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State government to meet salary bill of municipal employees

Special Correspondent

Move to reduce the financial burden on municipal bodies
GOs to be implemented with retrospective effect from April 1

A. Ramnarayan Reddy

HYDERABAD: Municipal Administration Minister Anam Ramnarayan Reddy has said that the State government would issue orders meeting the salary bill of municipal staff within a week or ten days.

The government would pay annually from its treasury Rs. 408 crore to 28,000 municipal employees and another Rs. 139 crore to municipal teachers, he said addressing the general body meeting of A.P. Chambers of Municipal Chairmen here on Friday.

Mr. Reddy said the government had decided to pay the salaries to reduce the financial burden on municipal bodies and enable them to spend their revenues on developmental activities.

It had issued orders in this respect a couple of months ago, but they were not implemented as election code was in force.

After reviewing the position shortly after it took charge, the new government decided that the GOs be implemented with retrospective effect from April 1 this year.

The Minister also announced that the limits of several municipalities would be revised by the time they go to polls in fifteen months. The proposed geographical growth of the municipalities was being studied in a scientific manner with a mandate to integrate them with surrounding gram panchayats. Though the panchayats were independent of the municipalities presently, they were mostly dependent on the latter for meeting their electricity, water and drainage requirements.

He regretted the poor drainage systems in urban towns, including Greater Hyderabad. He promised to consider the demand of municipalities to retain the cess on stamps and registration which was presently transferred to government.

Information Technology Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy said provincialisation of services of municipal staff was the achievement of Congress government.

Commissioner of Municipal Administration Sunil Sharma and Director of Town and Country Planning V.R. Satish Chandra were also present.

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