D.A. hike for Andhra Govt. employees.

The Kiran Kumar Reddy Cabinet got down to work on Thursday and gave a year-ending gift to the state government employees, hiking their Dearness Allowance to 8.56 per cent. The hiked DA from July to November would be adjusted with the General Provident Fund, and would be paid out in cash along with the December salary.

The information and public relations minister, Ms D.K. Aruna, said the government would incur an additional expenditure of Rs 1,488 crore annually due to the hiked DA. The decision came a few hours after the CM asked restive government employees to give him time to resolve their problems.
All ministers except Mr Vatti Vasanth Kumar turned up for the Cabinet meeting after the discontented ones were assured by party seniors and Mr Kiran Kumar Reddy that their grievances would be resolved and that a few changes in allocation of business among ministers would be done in due course.
Mr Kumar, meanwhile, took back his resignation to the Assembly, but stayed away from the Cabinet. Though the CM invited some of these ministers for a meeting at the Secretariat, they decided to meet at the residence of Mr B. Satyanarayana and discuss the injustice meted out to them.
Mr Satyanarayana, after meeting the Chief Minister, said he had raised the issue of social justice not being followed while allocating business to ministers. “I have told the CM that the message should not go out that one particular community is being sidelined at the cost of another community,” he said.

 Source : Deccan Chronicle.