Hyderabad, Mar 17 (IANS): Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Wednesday told the Assembly that an announcement on the Pay Revision Commission (PRC) recommendations for government employees will be made in the next couple of days.

He said the announcement will be made in the Assembly after the results of elections to two Legislative Council seats are declared.

KCR, as the Chief Minister is popularly known, assured the government employees that the PRC implementation will meet their expectations. "In fact, Telangana government employees will feel proud to be among the highest paid in the country," he said.

Replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor's address, he promised that all the issues of the employees will be addressed.

The Chief Minister also told the Assembly that an unemployment allowance is under the consideration of the government. He pointed out that Covid pandemic put a burden of Rs 1 lakh crore on the state exchequer.

KCR said the government was in the process of framing guidelines to pay unemployment allowance to the unemployed youth but due to the pandemic, the government could not even pay full salaries to the employees and thus in such a difficult situation, it could not pay unemployment allowance.

He, however, assured the house that unemployment allowance is under the consideration of the government and nobody should have any doubts about its implementation.

Replying to the issues raised by Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leader Akbaruddin Owaisi, the Chief Minister said the government was focusing on allotment of double bed-room houses to applicants in the old city of Hyderabad and problems faced by minority residential schools.

KCR reiterated that the places of worship damaged during the demolition of old state Secretariat will be rebuilt on their original sites.

When BJP member Raghunandan Rao stated that the eligible people are not getting ration cards, KCR said the government issued large number of ration cards. He pointed out that the number of ration cards before 2014 was only 14 lakh and the number has now gone up to 39 lakh.

Stating that the government is working with an aim to help the poor, he said the pension for various categories of beneficiaries which was just Rs 200 per month in the past has been raised to Rs 2,016. The number of beneficiaries also increased from 29,21,520 to 39,36,520.