The Telangana government on Thursday, October 24 constituted a Cabinet Sub-Committee, headed by Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, to address the problems of state government employees. Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy constituted the Sub-Committee after a meeting with the representatives of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of state government employees.

Vikramarka, who holds the finance portfolio, will be Chairman of the three-member panel, which will also comprise Industry and Information Technology Minister D Sridhar Babu and Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar. Advisor to the state government, K Keshava Rao will be the special invitee. The Cabinet Sub-Committee will hold department-wise meetings after Diwali.

The Chief Minister told the JAC representatives that the government is ready to solve the problems of the employees. He said this meeting was the first step to address the grievances of the employees. He assured the JAC that a decision on the release of pending dues of Dearness Allowance (DA) will be made by Friday (October 25) evening.

The Chief Minister’s meeting with the JAC came following the decision of employees’ unions to announce their course of action in November's first week if the government failed to respond to their demands. Revanth Reddy also said that the government will take a decision on the Cabinet Sub-Committee report on Government Order (GO) 317 related to the allocation of jobs and transfers in the cabinet meeting.

The Sub-Committee headed by Health Minister C Damodar Raja Narasimha submitted its report to the Chief Minister on October 20. The GO, relating to the identification of local cadres in the government departments, had become a cause of concern for the employees who were facing hardships in terms of transfers and reassignments forcing them to live separately from their families. Sridhar Babu and Prabhakar were members of the panel which held consultations with affected groups including teachers’ unions and intellectuals during the last three months.