Due to the Corona epidemic, the Finance Ministry had postponed the 7th pay commission DA increase from May 2020 to June 30, 2021.
The 7th pay commission allowance (DA) of 28 percent of central employees has started coming in their accounts, but they are still disappointed on one front. Their expectations regarding the arrears of 18 months of the employees were not met. When the government announced the dearness allowance, it was said that they would only get the increased dearness allowance, but the arrears were denied.
Although the news of 18 months dues has reached Prime Minister Narendra Modi, PM Modi will now take a decision on this matter. Due to this, hope has been revived regarding the dues of central employees. If Prime Minister Modi approves the arrears of 18 months, then a huge amount will be deposited in the accounts of about 1 crore central employees and pensioners. Earlier, dearness allowance of central government employees has now been doubled to 28%. Due to this, more than 48 lakh central government employees and more than 65 lakh retired employees are affected.
Indian Pensioners Forum (BMS) has approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a letter requesting payment of DA and DR dues. The BMS has requested that Prime Minister Modi intervene in the matter and further direct the Finance Ministry to clear the DA-DR dues withheld between January 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021, at the earliest. Pensioners complain that ever since the DA-DR freeze, there has been an increase in inflation. Prices of petrol, diesel, edible oil and pulses have reached new highs.
The Finance Ministry had postponed the 7th pay commission DA hike from May 2020 to June 30, 2021, due to the Corona pandemic. It will be implemented again on July 1, 2021. Since then three installments of Dearness Allowance have been released. A total of 11% DA has been given for the months of January 2020, July 2020 and January 2021. For these 18 months, however, no dearness allowance arrears were paid. During the monsoon session, the Minister of State for Finance clarified in a written announcement in the Rajya Sabha that no decision has been taken on the dues.
Employees and retirees receive DA-DR as compensation for rising living costs. The price has risen at an alarming pace over the past 18 months. Withholding money for this period is not in the interest of employees and retirees in this situation. According to the letter, most of the pensioners are elderly. Medicines are expensive. Moreover, the income of most of the pensioners is so low as a result of the corona situation that they can only feed themselves.
According to BMS the country is undoubtedly facing a financial crisis. Most of the retirees have contributed a day to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Emergency Relief Fund (PM CARES). At the same time, he has appealed to the government that he should pay the ‘Outstanding DA-DR’.
