New Year gift: Telangana regularises 18,000 temporary staffers

Hyderabad: Telangana government on Saturday decided to regularise the services of over 18,000 temporary employees and also "considerably" increase salaries of outsourced staffers working for the state.

The decision was taken at a Cabinet meet presided over by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.

Briefing the media after an 11-hour-long marathon meet, he said the government has also decided to waive the pending water bills and give huge discounts on property tax to residents of Hyderabad.

"The Cabinet today decided to regularise all the 18,000-plus temporary employees working in various departments. We have also decided to increase the salaries of outsourcing employees considerably," Rao said.

Asked whether the decisions had been taken keeping in mind the upcoming elections for the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Elections, he did not give a direct reply.

"We are not 'Ahobila Mutt' (charitable or religious trust). Ours is a political party. Definitely there will be some politics. We will try to take advantage of the situation.

TRS government will treat all the citizens of Hyderabad equally," the Chief Minister said.

He said that the state has garnered 15 percent more revenues so far than what was estimated earlier.

The Cabinet also gave green signal to construct two dedicated water reservoirs with 40 TMC capacity each to cater to the drinking water needs of Hyderabad.

Rao said the Cabinet discussed over 50 issues in today's meeting.