The state government is all set to remove about 2.7 lakh contract employees working in various departments by citing the opposition of government employees’ associations to the system of outsourcing work.
Incidentally, Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy has been talking of providing 15 lakh jobs to the unemployed by 2014, at the rate of 5 lakh jobs a year, under the ‘Rajiv Yuva Kiranalu’ scheme. However, the government’s latest move would render aro-und 2.7 lakh outsourced employees jobless.
A panel headed by P.V. Ramesh, principal secretary, finance, has begun gathering details of contract workers.
Directions have been issued to all heads of departments to collect details of contract staff working in their department and submit the data online to the finance department.
The government has no data on the number of contract staff but unofficial estimates put the number over 2.7 lakh. The official figure, though, is around 60,000.
The employees set to be axed are data processing officers (Rs 11,500 per month), senior stenos (Rs 10,900), data entry operators (Rs 9,500), junior assistants, typists and junior stenos (Rs 8,400), lift operators (Rs 7,700), subordinate staff (attender/last grade services) (Rs 6,700) and drivers (Rs 8,000).