7th Pay Commission: Karnataka state government employees may get good news soon. The Karnataka Cabinet has decided to implement the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission from August 1.
The Chief Minister is set to announce salary hike for more than seven lakh state government employees during the assembly session.
7th pay commission will be implemented
On the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission, Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge said that the 7th Pay Commission was one of the demands of the people and it was also in our manifesto. Yesterday we brought it to the Cabinet and it will benefit about 14 to 15 lakh state employees. The 7th Pay Commission headed by former Chief Secretary K Sudhakar Rao has suggested a 27.5 per cent hike in the basic salary of government employees, which is expected to cost the state exchequer an additional Rs 17,440.15 crore annually.
The salary you get will increase
The decision comes at a time when the Siddaramaiah government was under pressure to approve a salary hike. Notably, the Karnataka State Government Employees Union said it would launch an indefinite strike in August. In March 2023, then chief minister Basavaraj Bommai had given an interim 17 per cent salary hike to employees, to which the Siddaramaiah administration is likely to hike it by 10.5 percentage points, taking the total basic salary hike to 27.5 per cent.
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Earlier on July 15, the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) planned to propose a hike in bus fares by up to 20 per cent, citing significant financial losses. KSRTC has incurred a loss of ₹295 crore in the last three months. Mainly due to the Shakti scheme which offers free bus travel for women in Karnataka.
KSRTC chairman SR Srinivas had said that the last time bus ticket prices were hiked was in 2019. It has been five years since then, without any hike. Fares are bound to increase due to the rise in oil prices. It is necessary to adjust the rates to increase salaries and give benefits to employees. He also said that the salary revision for KSRTC employees was done in 2020, while the next revision is scheduled for 2024.
