Revised allowances for govt staff approved

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 21

The state Finance Department on Thursday gave its approval to the long-awaited allowances of government employees in accordance with the 7th Pay Commission. But the issue of house rent allowance (HRA) and some others may take some more time.

Sources in the Finance Department confirmed that approval was granted on Thursday to release 10 types of allowances — children education allowance, travelling allowance, fixed medical allowance, non-practicing allowance for HCMS doctors, AYUSH doctors, dental surgeons and veterinarians, conveyance allowance for differently abled, special allowances for safai karamcharis, uniform and washing allowance (for Group D employees), hill compensation allowance (for Morni area), cycle allowance (for Group D employees) and special allowance on birth of children of differently abled women employees as per the central government rules.

As far as HRA and some department-specific allowances are concerned, the government has decided to constitute a committee for further study on the issue.

“Haryana has witnessed good pace of urbanisation in the past some years. However, the point to be studied is whether the classification of cities into A, B, C and D category by the central government will be applicable in the case of Haryana or not, ” said an official who did not want to be quoted.

He said that it has been decided that a committee be constituted to study various factors, including the price index and rent of houses in various towns and cities of the state for the purpose of deciding HRA of the employees.

Claiming that Haryana is only the fifth state after Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Rajasthan to approve allowances under the 7th Pay Commission report, he said that the government wants to release the allowances in a phased manner.

Besides the HRA, the issue of departmental-specific allowance would also be given to the committee to decide, said the sources.

Among departmental-specific allowances, police personnel get uniform allowance, kit allowance, risk allowance and ration allowance etc while nurses in the Health Department get uniform allowance and some other allowances.

Sources said that the employees would get these allowances in a phased manner as and when decisions are taken by the committee.

Meanwhile, sources said that approval of salaries as per the 7th Pay Commission to university professors, associate professors and assistant professors and college teachers could also take some time as some information sought from the field is yet to be received by the Finance Department.

The allowances 

• Children education allowance revised to Rs 1,125 from Rs 750 per month per eligible child, limited to first two children.
• Special allowance for child care to differently abled women government employees fixed at Rs 1,500 per month per child.
• Non-practicing allowance for HCMS doctors, AYUSH doctors and veterinarians to be 20 per cent of pay in pay matrix with a rider that the sum of pay and NPA does not exceed Rs 2,24,550 per month.
• Hill compensatory allowance to employees posted in Morni hills had been revised to 2.5 per cent of the pay in pay matrix, subject to a minimum of Rs 350 and maximum of Rs 700 per month.
• Cycle allowance to all Group D employees has been fixed at Rs 200 per month. 
• Special allowance to safai karamcharis will be Rs 625 per month.
• Conveyance allowance to visually impaired and orthopedically differently-abled employees has been fixed at 10 per cent of the pay in pay matrix, subject to minimum of Rs 2,500 per month and maximum of Rs 7,200 per month.