Hyderabad 11 August : Nearly two years after being fired for going on strike and sacked by the state government, more than 7,000 field staff are scheduled to return to work in Telangana since the government of Telangana has taken the decision to reinstate the position. The field assistants are employed by Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS).
Panchayat Raj and Rural Development secretary Sandeep Kumar Sultania issued oral instructions to all district collectors and rural development officers to re-instate field assistants.
The federal government in the once united Andhra Pradesh had appointed 7,561 field assistants to oversee work under MNREGS and to create muster rolls of employees employed under the scheme, and ensure employment for all applicants for job cards.
They initially were appointed with an initial pay scale of 1200 rupees per month, which was later raised to Rs 10,000 per month.
In February 2020, the federal government fired the field assistants who went to strike in support of their demands, which included regularizing their services and paying of salaries through the treasury offices.
Since then, fired field workers have been holding protests calling for reinstatement.The opposition parties have also joined in their agitation.
The field staff made numerous appeals to the government to seek their reinstatement and ensuring that they would follow the rules and not engage in excessive protests.
On March 15 the Chief Minister K.Chandarsekhar Rao promised to reinstate the field assistants.He had stated that the state would bring them back on humanitarian reasons and warned the field assistants not to take part in strikes in the future.
Panchayat Raj Minister E.Dayakar Rao has stated the chief minister stayed by his word and reinstated field staff in services.
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