After 28% increase in 7th pay commission Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) by 28%, now the demand has intensified regarding the arrears of 7th pay commission 18 months. Employees are constantly demanding arrears, a big update has come out on this. The Pensioners’ Forum of India (BPM) has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention for early release of Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) dues for central government employees and pensioners.
On which PM Modi has to take the final decision. According to the latest update, PM Modi can take a decision on this soon. On the other hand, if PM Modi’s decision is taken with the demand of the employees, then more than 1 crore employees of the country will get big benefits.
In April last year, the Finance Ministry had stopped the increase in Dearness Allowance (DA) till June 30, 2021 due to the Corona epidemic. In July this year, the government increased the DA and DR to 28 per cent with effect from July 1, 2021, benefiting over 48 lakh central government employees and 65 lakh pensioners. Although the government departments have given their opinion on the arrears, the department says that the arrears will not be paid to the employees, after which the employees have appealed to the PM in the matter.
From 1 January 2020 to 30 June 2021, the DA rate was 17 per cent. Thus no DA and DR arrears were released to Central Government employees and pensioners respectively. In a letter to the Prime Minister, BMS said that you are requested to intervene in this matter and direct the Ministry of Finance to release the freeze DA/DR from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 at the earliest.
BPM said during this period (DA/DR freeze) there was an increase in retail inflation and prices of auto fuels, edible oils and several pulses had risen to record levels. The BPM said that the basic premise for payment of DA/DR is to compensate employees and pensioners for the increase in cost of living. It is an unreasonable idea to deny compensation to employees and pensioners once the cost of living goes up.
Most of the pensioners need medical help in their old age and now due to Corona crisis the rate of everything has increased manifold. It mentioned that most of the pensioners are in a face-to-face financial situation.
