6% DA for Punjab employees, pensioners to up burden by Rs 720 crore

CHANDIGARH: Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the cash-strapped Punjab government on Friday announced 6% dearness allowance (DA) for its nearly 3.25 lakh government employees and 3 lakh pensioners from February 1.
This would put an additional annual burden of Rs 720 crore on the state exchequer. Chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh announced this during a cabinet meeting.After coming to power in March 2017, the Congress government had not released any DA instalment. State government’s annual salary and pension bill is nearly Rs 36,000 crore.
Terming this as an election gimmick, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal rapped the Congress government for approving only one instalment of DA, when four — amounting to Rs 4,000 crore — are still pending. He said the Congress party had betrayed the farmers by promising complete loan waiver and youths through its Ghar Ghar Rozgar scheme.
Before this, the DA was announced in December 2016. The state government employees’ unions had been holding protests since last year for announcement of the four pending installments of DA, apart from other issues. The employees were due for the fifth installment of DA this January.
In a bid to woo the voters ahead of the 2017 state assembly elections, the then SAD-BJP government had announced an increase of 7% in the DA of its employees and pensioners. The allowance is paid to the government employees and pensioners to mitigate the impact of inflation on them.
The 6th Punjab pay commission constituted in February 2016 and headed by former chief secretary of the state, Jai Singh Gill, is yet to finalise its report. The state government has extended its term till December. Whereas, the neighbouring state of Haryana had announced implementation of the 7th Central Pay Commission in October 2016.