No order issued on resuming dearness allowance; FM faces Opposition ire
The ministry said that a document, which is doing the rounds on social media claiming that DA to government employees and dearness relief to government pensioners will resume from July 2021, is fake.
FollowThe Union Finance Ministry has said that it has brought out no orders announcing the resuming of dearness allowance for the central government employees and dearness relief for the central government pensioners from July 1.
The ministry said that a document, which is doing the rounds on social media claiming that DA to government employees and dearness relief to government pensioners will resume from July 2021, is fake.
No such office memorandum has been issued, the ministry clarified.
Dearness allowance is a cost-of-living allowance paid to government employees and pensioners to help them financially in the wake of rising prices or inflation.
The government had said in 2020 that the freeze on the DA/DR hike due to the Coronavirus pandemic would last till July 2021. About 52 lakh central government employees and over 60 lakh pensioners had been expecting an income hike. That's because rates of dearness allowance are revised every six months.
According to media reports, post reinstatement, the dearness allowance of the central government employees could have increased from 17 per cent to 28 per cent. This would have included a 3 per cent increase from January to June 2020, a 4 per cent increase from July to December 2020, and a 4 per cent increase from January to June 2021.
'Government trying to snatch hard-earned money'
The Opposition lashed out at the Finance Ministry for not lifting the freeze on the dearness allowance and dearness relief.
Terming it "a crime to loot Rs 37,500 crore from soldiers, government employees and pensioners", Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged that the central government is trying to snatch the hard-earned money of 113 lakh employees instead of encouraging them.
Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Sitaram Yechury said, "This is criminal. Modi government withholds payment of Rs 37.5K crores dearness allowance to 1.13 crore veterans, pensioners and employees for 1.5 years during this pandemic. At the same time, daily petrol price hikes and overall inflation is ruining livelihoods. Pay DA forthwith."
