Around 2,000 officers and employees of Maharashtra’s prison department, including staff at Pune’s Yerawada prison, have not received their September salaries after the state government failed to extend their temporary posts on time, according to a report by Punekar News published on October 13. With half of October already over, employees have urged the government to approve the extensions and release their pending pay.
The delay has affected staff responsible for managing Maharashtra’s prison network, which includes 60 facilities: nine central prisons, 28 district prisons and 19 open prisons. The state also has a special women’s prison, a juvenile correctional facility and a children’s correctional home.
Employees told Punekar News that the withheld salaries have made it difficult to pay home and vehicle loan instalments, meet children’s education expenses and manage regular household costs. The timing has added to the pressure, with Navratri underway, Dussehra approaching and Diwali scheduled for next month.
The affected positions were created as Maharashtra expanded its prison department in response to the growing number of prisons and increasing pressure on the inmate population. Around 2,000 posts were created over the past one to two years, covering positions ranging from senior officials, including inspectors general and superintendents, to prison guards.
Under the government guidelines described in the report, posts that have not completed three years are classified as temporary. These positions require an extension every six months, and salaries are released after the extension is approved. Once the posts complete three years, they are treated as permanent.
The current salary disruption followed the government’s failure to grant the required extension in recent days. As a result, September salary payments for employees occupying the temporary posts were withheld. The affected staff have called for an immediate decision so that the administrative issue can be resolved and their pending salaries released.
The situation places the functioning of a large public institution at the centre of a payroll and establishment-sanction process. The prison department’s next step, as sought by the employees, is approval of the temporary-post extensions by the state government, followed by the release of the delayed September salaries.
