Siddu promises to implement 7th pay commission

NT Correspondent

Belagavi: Leader of Opposition (LOP) in the Assembly Siddaramaiah became the second party leader after KPCC president DK Shivakumar to officially promise to implement the Seventh Pay Commission report’s recommendations. He said that the party would implement it once they came to power, adding that ideally the sitting State government should do the same since it was an urgent matter.

The commission had recommended a 23.55 per cent hike in the salaries and allowances of government employees. However, some unions are demanding a 40 per cent hike in wages. The announcement is significant since government employees have begun on an indefinite strike pending implementation of the relevant report.

“It has been three months since they got the interim report. They should have implemented it, but they didn’t. The mention of the report was also missing from the Budget proceedings. They haven’t allocated money for it either. They should call them (protesters) and discuss the matter with them and implement the report. If they don’t do this, we’ll do it when we come to power,” Siddaramaiah said.

The former chief minister claimed that it was not a matter of “political will” to implement the report, but rather the BJP State government had lied when they promised the application of the recommendations. Siddaramaiah made the comments before mediapersons in Belagavi city.

He has been on a three-day tour of Belagavi district as a part of the Praja Dhwani Yatra. Congress has been hoping to leverage the LOP’s panKarnataka appeal to win support in north Karnataka, where he has been busy. The geographically large and populous Belagavi district is home to 18 Assembly constituencies.