The office of Andhra Pradesh’s Information and Public Relations Minister Chelluboina Venugopala Krishna on Monday denied that the minister’s chamber at state Secretariat was locked by the employees protesting against non-payment of salaries.

The office clarified that there was some delay in opening the minister’s room but some television channels spread fake news.

It was reported by some media organisations that employees locked the office to protest non-payment of salaries for eight months. According to the reports, the employees stayed away from duties and refused to open the chamber till payment of their salaries.

Some channels reported that the employees resorted to the protest as their repeated requests to the minister and officials to pay their salaries fell on deaf ears. On June 9, they had reportedly made it clear that if their salaries were not paid, they will not attend duties from Monday (June 12).

However, the minister’s office issued a statement clarifying that there was delay in opening the office as two of the three attenders had not attended duties due to personal reasons while the third reached late.

According to the statement, the minister’s office worked as usual with OSD and PROs attending their duties and receiving applications from visitors.

The minister’s office clarified that there was no delay in payment of salaries to employees but some media channels spread fake news to malign the government.