Telangana govt allots 71 acres for Atma Gaurava Bhavans in Hyderabad

The Telangana cabinet on Sunday approved construction of self-respect buildings for all Backward Classes (BCs) in the city. The government allotted 71 acres land and sanctioned Rs.70 crore for construction of these buildings. Among its other decisions, it gave the nod for enhancement of salaries of contract doctors and enhancement of retirement age to 65 years for archakas (priests).

Briefing the media after the cabinet meeting, deputy chief minister Kadiyam Srihari, ministers Eatala Rajender, T Harish Rao and Jogu Ramanna said the government would allot five more acres for the Reddy Hostel in the city. Last year, the government had allotted land for Reddy Hostel at Budwel.

As promised and announced earlier by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, the cabinet okayed the proposal to pay salaries to archakas working in various temples from the government treasury along with increasing their retirement age from 58 to 65 years.

The ministers said the honorarium of Gopala Mitras working in rural areas was hiked from Rs.3,500 to Rs.8,500 per month.

Eatala Rajender said the



ongoing ‘Kanti Velugu’ (eye screening programme) was discussed in the cabinet meeting and the chief minister expressed happiness over the implementation of the programme. Harish Rao said the cabinet approved enhancement of honorarium to 27,000 ASHA workers from Rs.6,000 to Rs.7,500 per month. Similarly, about 9,000 people working in the health and medical department, including auxiliary nurse-midwives (ANMs) and people working under National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), staff nurses and pharmacists would be given salaries under the Minimum Wages Act. Second ANMs salaries have been increased to Rs.21,000 from the existing Rs.11,000. Contract doctors would now get Rs.40,000 from the present Rs.36,000 per month.

The cabinet, which could not discuss many issues listed on the agenda, decided to meet again either on September 5 or 6. “Another cabinet meeting will be held shortly,” Kadiyam Srihari said. Meanwhile, chief secretary SK Joshi issued a note on Sunday afternoon asking principal secretaries and heads of all departments to send their detailed proposals to the cabinet before September 4.