7th Pay Commission – Modi, Jaitley meet, revised allowances from July, HRA at 27 per cent.
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Finance
Secretary Ashok Lavasa yesterday evening to discuss his views on the 7th
Pay Commission allowances, reported ANI.
With pressure building on the government from the lakhs of central
government employees, both Modi and Jaitley met yesterday to discuss the
issue.
The government has confirmed that the central government employees will
get revised allowances from July 2017 onwards. The exact date given for
this is July 18 2017.
Crucial Modi-Jaitley meet
With the unrest among the central government employees growing, it was
decided that the government does not want to keep the issue pending.
Both the Prime Minister and Finance Minister are going out of the
country this week. While Modi will be away in the US, Jaitley is on a
visit to Russia from June 20 onwards.
Both Modi and Jaitley were unable to discuss the 7th Pay Commission
recommendations earlier as they were busy with the Presidential
candidate. However it was decided that the two leaders would hold a
quick meeting to clear pending issues.
What next?
Now that the meeting has been held, there is still no confirmation that
revised allowances would be rolled out from next month.The issue of
revised allowances and higher HRA, the matter would be placed before the
Union Cabinet. The Cabinet is meeting on Wednesday, but is unlikely to
take up the matter as Jaitley would not be present. It is the Finance
Minister who has to place the matter before the Cabinet. Sources say
that the matter will be taken up in the next Cabinet to be held on June
28.
The federal Cabinet too is reluctant to discuss the matter in absence of
its Finance Minister as seen in the past two weeks. Twice the issue of
reformed allowance structure has been dropped from the Cabinet’s agenda.
Agenda to be fixed
The matter which should have been cleared two weeks ago remains pending.
On both occasions the agenda was not fixed as a result of which it was
not taken up. Government sources said that certain issues were being
finalised and hence there was a delay. Moreover many in the BJP
government were busy with the Presidential elections and hence there was
a delay on higher allowances and HRA.
HRA to be fixed at 27 per cent
While there is confirmed news that revised allowances would be rolled
out from July 2017 onwards, sources now say that the Finance Ministry is
in favour of giving HRA at 27 per cent, 18 per cent and 9 per cent for
X, Y and Z cities respectively under the 7th Pay Commission. The general
secretary of National Joint Council of Action or NJCA is holding talks
with the government on behalf of the employees. He recently met the
Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha and urged him not to delay the matter
further.
IB warns of unrest
Meanwhile various intelligence agencies say that if the matter is
delayed further there could be a nation wide unrest. There is already
lot of tension and frustration among the employees. The IB has said that
if the matter gets delayed any further it could go out of hand. For now
the employees are indulging in peaceful protests such as forming human
chains. However if the matter gets delayed further, it could go out of
control. The government has taken this report seriously and will work on
the issue and try resolving by June end.
With inputs from ANI
