Retired employees and contractors staged a protest at the Telangana Secretariat on Monday, demanding the release of long-pending retirement benefits and payments for completed public works, leading to heated exchanges with police outside Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka’s chamber.
The protesters gathered on the second floor of the Secretariat while Bhatti was holding a review meeting with ministers and officials on construction works for Young India Residential Schools and schemes for backward classes. They said they had repeatedly visited the Secretariat and the finance department over several months but had not been given an opportunity to meet the Deputy Chief Minister or Finance Secretary Sandeep Kumar Sultania.
The retired employees alleged that their retirement benefits had remained unpaid for several years despite repeated representations. A family member of a deceased retired employee said the pensioner died on August 3, 2024, without receiving any payment towards his retirement benefits. The family member questioned how the household could survive without the dues.
Tension escalated when police personnel stopped the protesters from meeting the Deputy Chief Minister, according to the report. The protesters said officials and police personnel were not allowing them to meet Bhatti or the finance secretary and insisted that they would remain at the Secretariat unless they received an appointment.
Contractors participating in the protest also alleged that payments for completed works were being delayed. They said officials were issuing token numbers for their bills, but the bills were still not being cleared. The contractors questioned the purpose of issuing tokens when the payment process remained incomplete.
Several of the contractors had undertaken renovation and improvement works in government schools under the Mana Ooru, Mana Badi programme during the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi government. They claimed that payments for some completed works continued to remain pending. The reported dispute therefore involves not only private dues but also the financial closure of public infrastructure works carried out for government schools.
The protest followed earlier demonstrations over similar demands. On September 17, retired employees reportedly queued at the finance department in the Secretariat and appealed to officials to release their retirement benefits. Contractors also staged a flash protest at Bhatti’s chambers in August 2025 over unpaid dues. In March 2025, the Telangana Civil Contractors Welfare Association held another flash protest at the Deputy Chief Minister’s chambers, seeking clearance of long-pending bills.
The latest protest took place as the Finance Minister was reviewing the progress of construction works for Young India Residential Schools and backward-class welfare schemes. The report did not include a statement from Bhatti, Sultania or the finance department on the reasons for the pending payments, the total value of the outstanding bills, or a timeline for clearing them. No official account of the protesters’ demands or the administration’s next steps was reported.
