State engineers seek salary on par with Central govt staff

“There is a misconception between Central Public Works Department (CPWD) Engineers and Assistant Engineers (AEs) in the state as CPWD engineers are diploma holders whereas AEs are engineers recruited through TNPSC. However, both the category is paid the same,” S Prakash, General Secretary, Rural Development Department Assistant Engineers Welfare Association, told DT Next.

State engineers were receiving salary on par with the Central engineers till fifth pay commission, but were not granted the same salary by 6th pay commission in 2006. As the issue was raised before the state, a commission was formed and the salary was raised, but the state government considering the horizontal disparity between engineers and officials of other departments unanimously took a decision to lower their salary.

Prakash said that when they approached the Supreme Court, a one-man committee under the chairmanship of retired Justice D Murugesan was appointed which again by comparing the positions of CPWD engineers had lowered the salary.

The engineers’ association recently wrote a letter to Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami urging him to consider their demands. “We are now receiving the salary in the scale of Rs 9,300 plus Rs 5,100, but according to centre’s pay scale what they should receive is Rs 15,600 plus Rs 5,400 for AEs. State should consider our demands and should increase the salary,” said Prakash.