A high-level meeting held on Wednesday over the freezing the annual salary increment of Chhattisgarh government employees amid the Covid-19 crisis ended here without reaching any consensus.
In a bid to resolve the issue, Additional Chief Secretary (Finance) Amitabh Jain, and representatives of government employees’ unions met at Mahanadi Bhavan (State Secretariat) in Nava Raipur.
“During the meeting Jain informed us that invoking the frozen annual salary increment is a sensitive policy level decision. But the matter will be brought to the knowledge of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel for a final call”, said Kamal Verma, Convener of the Chhattisgarh Karamchari Adhikari Federation (CKAF).
As per government service rules, “we should be given annual salary increment by July 1, 2020 but unfortunately it didn’t happen,” said Verma.
Halting of annual salary increment of government employees is an offence, said a statement made by the Government Employees Unions.
In a bid to meet the fiscal crisis, the state government has taken austerity measures including suspension of annual increment of government employees and promotions as well as foreign tours of officers until March 31, 2021.
If the government agrees to give the annual salary increment, it will put a burden of Rs 600 crore on the exchequer, said a government official.