Central govt employees to get 18-month DA arrears? Here’s what the new proposal before PM Modi says

financialexpress.com:

Will central government employees and pensioners receive the dearness allowance (DA) arrears, as various staff unions and associations demand? After the return of Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre after the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls, the Centre has received yet another proposal regarding the payment of DA arrears withheld during the COVID-19 pandemic period.

These DA arrears pertain to the three hikes that were expected every six months but did not take effect as the pandemic struck the country in early 2020. The central government hikes DA twice a year, in January and July. The Modi government froze the DA hike for 18 months due to the financial impact amid the economic logjam during the pandemic.

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The latest proposal has come before the Prime Minister from Shiva Gopal Mishra, Secretary, National Council (staff side), Joint Consultative Machinery for Central Government Employees.

In a letter to Modi, Mishra pressed for 14 long-standing demands, including clearance of 18-month DA arrears.

“As a secretary (Staff Side) of the National Council (JCM), it is my duty to draw your kind attention to some of the major issues which are agitating the minds of the central government employees and pensioners,” he wrote to the PM.

The letter requested the government “to release the 18 months DA arrears frozen during the COVID-19 pandemic to the Central Government Employees and Pensioners”.

This demand has been raised despite the government ruling out the possibility of paying DA arrears to employees and pensioners on a couple of past occasions, citing financial viability.

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