Over 50 lakh central government employees, who are seeking a hike in minimum pay and fitment factor beyond the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations, may have to wait longer. Despite high hopes of additional hike prior to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, there is no indication that the centre will take such a step, according to media reports.
There existed high hopes among various quarters that the government may accept the demands of government employees and pensioners for a hike in minimum pay and fitment factor beyond 7th Pay Commission recommendations.
This is despite Minister of State for Finance P Radhakrishnan's statement last March that the government is not mulling over the proposal for an increase of 3.68 times from 2.56 times in fitment factor for government staff.
Nonetheless, many experts believed that the government will reconsider its stand ahead of the General Elections 2019.
The idea was that the government employees and pensioners along with their families constitute a sizable vote bank and their support is crucial for the BJP to retain its position as the largest party in Lok Sabha elections.
The recent measures to waive off farm loans as announced by the Congress governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh after assembly election results and by the BJP government in Assam to reduce rural distress, there was optimism that the centre would take similar measures to please the government employees.
However, Radhakrishnan reiterated that there is no rethinking regarding the salary increase for government employees.
West Bengal state government employees to get higher DA from January
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in West Bengal has announced that the state government employees will now get a dearness allowance (DA) at the rate of 125 percent of their basic salary from January. Banerjee had earlier assured state government employees that all the dues will be cleared this month.
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