Government agrees to 22 demands of NREGS staff

HYDERABAD: The government has decided to resolve 22 of the 26 demands of NREGS contract staff, minister for rural development and NREGS D Manikya Varaprasad said here on Wednesday.The remaining four demands will be discussed, he said. As many as 27,000 contract staff of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) are on strike since March 24.Speaking to media persons at the secretariat, the minister appealed to NREGS staff to call off the strike in view of the hardship to labourers.Meanwhile, Telangana employees joint action committee chairman K Swamy Gowd met chief secretary Pankaj Dwivedi on Wednesday and urged him to release the GO treating the 42- day strike period as earned leave.Later, he told the media that the state government had promised to consider the 42 days of sakala janula samme as earned leave, but till today no GO was issued.Due to the delay in releasing the GO, many employees are retiring without the strike period benefits, he said.He also said employees are still getting ninth pay revision commission benefits, instead of 12th PRCs’.He demanded that the government must abolish Gonela anomaly committee and constitute full-fledged PRC committee