A wave of woes ‘grips’ govt employees

A wave of woes ‘grips’ govt employees

Posted: 14 Jun 2012 

A wave of woes ‘grips’ govt employees

Instead of rejoicing the increased pay packet they were offered, it appears that a strong wave of dissatisfaction has gripped them!

Days after the State govt had hiked their dearness allowances (DA) by 7% – from existing 58% to 65% of their basic salary – at par with that of the Central govt employees, the State govt employees under the banner of Confederation of Service Associations of Arunachal Pradesh (CoSAAP) today said they were totally dissatisfied with the way of disbursing the hiked DA to them.

An official document made available by CoSAAP said that in pursuance to the Union Finance Ministry’s ‘note’ dated 3rd April 2012, the govt of Arunachal Pradesh, on dated 2nd June 2012, decided that the dearness allowance payable to the State govt employees shall be enhanced from existing 58% to 65% with retrospective effect from January 1, 2012.

The arrear DA for six months would be paid in the following manner: (i) the three months arrear DA from the month of January 2012 to March 2012 to be paid in cash during the month of July 2012 & (ii) the arrear DA for (rest) three months from April 2012 to June 2012 is to be drawn and deposited in (employees’) GPF accounts during the month of January 2013.

Aghast at the second point, the employees’ apex body said, “Even though we welcome the govt decision to enhance our dearness allowance by 7%, we strongly oppose the order of govt to draw the arrear DA (for the months of April to June 2012) during January 2013 with direction to deposit same into GPF accounts. It’s nothing but an insult to the State govt employees especially those who don’t have their GPF or CPF accounts,” lamented CoSAAP.

On admissibility of 4 years block LTC as per the 6th CPC recommendations, it remarked, “In the past, there have been no such instances of issuance of orders by the State govt to hack the throat of govt employees like the one issued on5/6/2012. The most shocking part is that the govt order No FIN/E-II/22/2008 dtd 7th March 2012 which has allowed the State govt employees to avail 4 years block LTC facility as per norms for visiting ‘anywhere in India’ has been withdrawn vide OM No FIN/E-II/75/97 dtd 05/06/2012, thereby restricting the same with the tag ‘anywhere in Arunachal Pradesh’.”

Stating that the ‘latest developments’ will have a cascading effect on the morale of the employees and discharge of their duties, the CoSAAP, in a communiqué to the Development Commissioner (Finance) called for immediate review of the OM issued on 02/6/2012 and effect payment of arrear DAs in cash within June 2012 irrespective of the employees having GPF accounts or not.

If at all not possible for the employees having GPF accounts, the arrear DA from April 2012 to June 2012 should be drawn and deposited into GPF accounts during June 2012 itself.

It further said the order should specify for payment of arrear DA in cash for all 6 months to the employees who are not having GPF accounts.

CoSAAP also demanded the govt to cancel the OM dtd 05/6/2012 on LTC issue immediately and added that failing to honour its ‘genuine’ grievances would compel the employees to opt for other democratic means of protest to draw the attention of the competent authority.