State employees to get 7% additional DA

Tribune News service

Shimla, January 27

The state government employees will get 7 per cent additional Dearness Allowance (DA) from July 2014, while the income limit for employment on compassionate grounds will be raised from Rs1.25 lakh to Rs1.50 lakh. Making the announcement at a meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee of the State Employees’ Federation here today, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said the arrears of additional DA from July 2014 to March 2015 would be credited to the Provident Fund, while it would be paid in cash from April 2015. The employees would now get 107 per cent of the basic pay as DA and the decision would put an additional annual burden of Rs 300 crore on the state exchequer. However, the CM made it clear that the state government only followed the Punjab Pay Commission for giving financial benefits to employees and “not the announcements made by Cabinet sub-committees or any other Boards or Corporations formed by the Punjab Government to lure its employees during elections”. Accusing the previous state government of adopting the policy of ‘divide and rule’, the CM said it divided the Non-Gazetted Officers’ (NGO) Federation into several units which proved detrimental. Virbhadra Singh said: “Sensing my entry into active state politics, the then Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal, announced sops for employees in haste, a few months before the Assembly elections, without realising that it will put an extra burden of Rs 1,300 crore on the state exchequer, as a result the coffers were empty when the Congress government took over.” Blaming the previous government for not properly presenting the case of the state before the 13th Finance Commission, Virbhadra said the Commission grossly underestimated the committed liabilities of the state in spite of being a special-category state. However, he expressed hope that the 14th Finance Commission would be considerate in assessing the financial and developmental needs of the state. The CM said the demands of the employees of Rogi Kalyan Samitis and other demands of the NGO Federation would be considered sympathetically. The Chief Minister said daily wagers’ wages had been enhanced from Rs 150 to Rs 170, the winter allowance for employees in the tribal areas had already been enhanced from Rs 200 to Rs 300 per month and several other concessions have been announced for employees during the past two years. As many as 716 persons were given jobs on compassionate ground from January 2013 to December 2014, he added.