Employee council: Centre’s move to freeze DA drastic, will affect pensioners

NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government’s move to freeze dearness allowance (DA) of central government employees is drastic and will cause immense financial hardship to pensioners, the national council (representing employees) of the joint consultative machinery said in a letter to the Cabinet Secretary on Friday. The council has demanded immediate rollback of the decision.
The body has also highlighted the mental agony the employees, who are on the front lines in the fight against Covid-19, would face if the decision wasn’t reversed.

In the letter, council’s general secretary Shiva Gopal Mishra wrote that the employees of central and state governments were the real warriors in the fight against the virus, with many of them “working in the field exposing themselves without sufficient PPE”. Hence, the move to freeze DA would cause mental agony to the employees, he wrote.

“The constituent organisations of the national council are shocked to note the arbitrary decisions taken by the government to freeze DA. Before taking such a decision, the government has not bothered to consult the staff side of the council,” he said.

The letter said as the prices of essential commodities were skyrocketing and because of the DA move the employees would also lose the hike in HRA.

“Railways employees are deployed in various activities such as track signalling and special trains transporting essential goods. Almost all departments are involved in activities during the lockdown. The ordnance factories are directly involved in manufacturing protective equipment. Ignoring all the contribution...the government is targeting them. Nearly 48 lakh central government employees and 65,00000 pensioners do not deserve such a treatment from the government.”