The Central Government issued a big order on Tuesday after announcing dearness allowance and dearness relief from July 1. It said that there was a DA freeze from January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. That is, there was no increase in DA rates during this period.
This means that the announcement made by the government to give 28 percent DA from July 1, 2021, was sudden. This increased the DA by 11 percent, but government employees say that by issuing this order, the Center has eliminated the possibility of getting 18 months arrears. 48 lakh employees and 65 lakh pensioners of the center will no longer be able to get the benefit of arrears.
If the government had started increasing the DA from January 1, 2020, then by now a significant amount of arrears would have been deposited in the account of the employees.
National Council-JCM secretary Shiv Gopal Mishra says that the central government should give 18 months arrears to employees and pensioners. DA/DR is a part of the salary and pension of the employees. The government cannot turn its back on this.
In 18 months, the rate of DA will be considered only 17 percent. In the
letter issued by the Central Government on July 20, it has been said that till now there was a DA freeze. There was no increase in his rates. From January 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, the rate of DA DR should be considered only 17 percent.
While announcing the DA on July 14, Union Minister Anurag Thakur had said that now dearness allowance will be available at the rate of 28 percent. He had also said that the allowance would be available from July 1, 2021. He didn’t say anything about the arrears.
National Council-JCM Secretary Shiv Gopal Mishra, in a letter to the Cabinet Secretary on July 17, had requested that the arrears should also be given to the employees from January 1, 2020 till now. Three days after this demand, the Union Finance Ministry issued a separate letter. It was written in it that the rate of increased DA should be assumed to be 28 percent from July 1, 2021.
DA increases in January and July… According to central government employees’ unions, this letter from the Finance Ministry will have a huge impact. The government knew that the employees’ unions would demand arrears. For this they can also protest. Keeping this in mind, the Central Government has now issued this order. According to this, the employees were to get DA at the rate of 17 percent on January 1, 2020. The government itself had announced this. Later that decision could not be implemented due to Corona. DA increases every six months i.e. in January and July. Employees say that the central government has expressed its intention that it does not want to pay arrears.
Mishra mentioned ‘illegal recovery’ in his letter…
Shiv Gopal Mishra has said in his letter that who will compensate the loss due to gratuity and other payments of employees who have retired between January 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021? It is not the fault of those workers, but they have been deprived of all benefits. In the last National Council-JCM meeting, the staff side had demanded payment of three installments of DA / DR dues of employees and pensioners from January 1, 2020.
The Employee side also offered that it is ready to discuss the way how arrears are to be paid. Mishra has cited a Supreme Court judgment in his letter. It states that due to economic crisis, the salary or pension of the employees can be temporarily stopped. However, it will have to be given back to the employees once the situation improves.
