Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao announced salary enhancement for the village organisation assistants to ₹8,000 a month in from the existing ₹5,900 and termed it a Raksha Bandhan gift.
The hike, coming into force from September, will benefit 17,608 VOAs working with the IKP self-help groups and will entail an additional burden of ₹106 crore a year on the State exchequer. The Chief Minister, according to an official release, took the decision on a humanitarian grounds responding to the request made by the representatives of the VOAs and the government had issued orders to this effect on Thursday evening.
Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao also positively responded to other requests of the VOAs like introducing uniform allowance, extension of their renewal once a year in place of the existing three month period and asked Minister for Finance T. Harish Rao to take steps in this direction. The Minister held a meeting with the VOAs on Thursday and conveyed the Chief Minister’s decisions to them.
