Wed Feb 19 15:47:55 UTC 2025: **Rajasthan Budget 2025 Disappoints Employees, Unions Protest**
Jaipur, Feb 19, 2025 – The Rajasthan government’s recently presented budget has sparked widespread discontent among state employees. Major employee unions, including the Akhil Rajasthan Rajya Karmachari Sanjukta Maha Sangh and the Akhil Rajasthan Mahila Evam Bal Vikas Sanjukta Karmachari Sangh, have issued statements criticizing the budget for failing to address their key concerns.
While the government announced the restructuring of a few services, which some unions welcomed, the exclusion of numerous subordinate services from this restructuring has led to significant disappointment. These excluded services include third-grade teachers, agricultural supervisors, village development officers, assistant and additional development officers, patwaris, kanungos, veterinary staff, ANMs, nurses, Ayush nurses, Ayurveda attendants, and employees from forestry, PHE, statistics, and physical education departments. Unions point out that these departments have a limited number of promotion opportunities (15-20%).
Further fueling the discontent, the budget failed to address pay anomalies stemming from the 6th and 7th Pay Commissions. The lack of provisions for transferring the ₹53,000 crore deducted from employees’ accounts under the New Pension Scheme (NPS) to their General Provident Fund (GPF) accounts has also created confusion regarding the Old Pension Scheme (OPS).
The unions also criticized the government’s contradictory stance on contract workers. While the budget announced steps to curtail the use of placement agencies for contract recruitments, it also proposed creating a contract cadre for the Jal Jeevan Mission. This perceived double standard has been met with strong opposition.
The Akhil Rajasthan Mahila Evam Bal Vikas Sanjukta Karmachari Sangh further accused the BJP government of being anti-woman, citing the lack of honorarium increases for Anganwadi workers, Saathin, and Asha workers, despite pre-election promises of ₹13,000 monthly honorariums. The union also condemned the termination of several Gram Saathin workers due to municipal area expansion. Additionally, the union criticized the government for halting a previous scheme providing ₹3 lakh in social security benefits to honorarium-based employees upon retirement.
Unions are demanding that the government address these issues in a supplementary budget, including cadre restructuring for subordinate services, ensuring at least four promotion opportunities within 5-8 years for each cadre, and replacing contract work with regular recruitments.
First Piper 