CM advances DA hike date for govt staff to Jan 1

No more suspension of employees on last day in office; retirement age of Anganwadi workers increased to 60

Chief Minister MK Stalin, on Tuesday, made 13 new announcements for government employees and teachers.

“The DA for government employees and pensioners was to be hiked from April 1 next year, but following demands, we decided to implement the hike from January 1 itself. The announcement will benefit 16 lakh government employees and result in additional expenditure of Rs 620 crore for three months from January to March and Rs 6,480 per annum,” said Stalin, in the announcements made under Rule 110 of the Tamil Nadu Assembly Rules.

Stalin also said that the retirement age of Anganwadi workers would be increased from 58 to 60, thus benefitting 29,137 Anganwadi cooks and 24,576 helpers.

The incentives given for government employees based on their education qualification was suspended in 2020. To encourage them to work better, the State will now provide incentives to them based on Union government’s guidelines. The vacant junior assistant posts in government schools will be filled through TNPSC. Also, no government employee will be suspended on their last day of work. Considering the demand of staff who protested against the government in 2016, 2017 and 2019, the days on which they protested will be considered as their working days.

Steps will be taken to bring back teachers who were transferred during their protests and priority will be given to them via counselling. Disciplinary action taken against teachers at the time of protests will also be discontinued and if promotion was affected that too will be set right.

Guidelines will be issued to clear discrepancies in providing jobs to wards of government employees after their death. The age limit for wards of government employees under the health insurance scheme will be relaxed and a help desk will be established to assist govt employees to clear doubts regarding the scheme. As the number of admissions of students to government schools has increased, teachers will be recruited according to the teacher-student ratio.

State Electricity Minister V Senthilbalajai on Tuesday accused the previous AIADMK of purchasing power at an exorbitant rate of Rs 7.01 per unit, but the incumbent DMK regime has inked agreements to purchase them at Rs 2.61 per unit.

Replying to the debate on demand for grants for the electricity department in the Assembly, Senthilbalaji said the previous AIADMK regime had entered into longterm power purchase agreements for 15 and 25 years at high procurement prices such as Rs 7.01 per unit.

Recalling one such longterm agreement made in 2013 by the previous AIADMK regime, the Minister said that power generation was started only three years after the agreement was signed and the market price of electricity fell in the interim.

He alleged that the previous regime had waited for the retirement of a bureaucrat to sign long-term power purchase pact with private suppliers.

Admitting that the debt of Tangedco accounted for a third of the state’s debt, the Minister said the previous regime made an agreement to purchase solar power at a fixed cost of Rs 7.01 per unit for 25 years despite knowing that the cost would reduce in future.

He also informed the Assembly that over 71,500 tonnes of coal was ‘missing’ from the Tangedco power plant in Thoothukudi.

Senthilbalaji dismissed his predecessor P Thangamani’s claims on the issue and said that the day he disclosed the details of the 2.38 lakh tonnes of missing coal in Tangedco’s North Chennai plant, Thangamani told media persons the same evening that the missing coal was discovered in his tenure and he had constituted a committee for the purpose.

The Minister also said over 71,500 tonnes of coal was ‘missing’ from the Tangedco power plant in Thoothukudi

“If you had constituted a committee, where is the report. I searched everywhere, there is no such report. A committee was constituted on April 28, 2021, ahead of the counting of votes (of the Assembly poll) on May 2,” the Minister said.

“Since when is this happening? It should be prevented at the outset. I am not blaming anyone. Steps will be taken to reform such things after receiving the final report of the committee,” he added, assuring strict action against whoever committed such wrongs in the department.