The Cabinet has announced a six per cent hike in the Dearness Allowance for all its employees.This increase will become effective from Jan 1 2009.
The decision will benefit 41 lakh government employees and another 38 lakh pensioners.Now the DA component in the salaries and pensions will increase from the 16 to 22 per cent
The decision to increase DA was taken because of the rise in the consumer price index for industrial workers.
DA is revised twice a year, from January one and July one, payable in salaries of March one and September one, respectively.
The additional financial implication on account of the increase in DA to Central government employees (excluding pensioners) would be Rs 4,100 crore for 14 months from January
one this year.
The rise in allowance, called dearness relief, to pensioners will cost the exchequer Rs 1,920 crore during the period
More than 8.3 million central government employees and pensioners will have to wait till at least August 2009 to receive the second instalment of Sixth Pay Commission arrears.
This became clear from the Interim Budget presented last week, which has not sought Parliamentary approval in its expenditure estimates for the first four months of the next fiscal starting April 2009, said a senior finance ministry official.
The government is estimating a total spend of Rs 47,500 crore for implementing the Sixth Pay Commission in the current and next financial year. Around Rs 27,000 crore is towards payment of arrears, as the implementation is from 2006.
Railway minister Lalu Prasad on Friday announced the introduction of 43 new trains. While fare for ordinary trains was reduced by Rupee 1 for journey above ten kilometers, fares of all AC classes were reduced by 2%. Similarly, second class and sleeper class fares for all mail, express and ordinary passenger trains were reduced by 2% for tickets costing Rs 50 and more.
He announced amidst thumping of desks that construction work on double line Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor has commenced from Dehri-on-Son from February 10, while work on Western Corridor will commence soon.
Action is also on for examining feasibility of running bullet trains on selected sections travelling at speed of 300 to 350 kilometers per hour. The survey for extension of Kolkata Metro from Dum Dum to Dakshineswar has been completed.
Railways expected to show a surplus of Rs 188.47 billion in the next fiscal. Due to implementation of the sixth pay commission recommendations, Railways are expected to incur an additional burden of Rs 90 billion on salaries and Rs 45 billion on pensions.
List Of New Trains
1. Bilaspur-Tirunelveli via Thiruvananthapuram Express (Weekly)
2. Ranchi-Jaynagar Express (Tri-Weekly)
3. Secunderabad-Manuguru Superfast (Daily)
4. Mumbai-Karwar Superfast (Tri-weekly)
5. Bhopal-Lucknow Junction Garib Rath Express (Weekly)
6. Durg-Jaipur Express (Weekly)
7. Chhatrapati Sahu terminal (Kolhapur)-Dhanbad Link Service via Parasnath (Weekly)
8. Sengottai-Erode Passenger (Daily)
9. Dibrugarh Town-Chandigarh Express (Weekly)
10. Ajmer-Bhagalpur via Delhi Garib Rath Express (Bi-Weekly)
11. Nizamuddin-Bangalore via Kacheguda Rajdhani Express (Tri-weekly)
12. Barauni-Delhi Jan Sadharan Superfast (Bi-weekly)
13. Mumbai-Varanasi Superfast (Daily)
14. Mysore-Yesvantpur Express (Daily)
15. Jamalpur-Gaya Passenger
16. Korapur-Rourkela Express via Rayagada (Daily)
17. Agra-Ajmer Superfast (Daily)
18. Sitamarhi-Patna Link Service (Daily)
19. Tiruchirapalli-Madurai Express (Daily)
20. Mumbai-Bikaner Superfast (Bi-weekly)
21. Jaynagar-Ajmer Link Service (Bi-weekly)
22. Agra-Lucknow Junction Shatabdi Express (Daily)
23. Gandhidham-Kolkata Superfast (Weekly)
24. New Delhi-Guwahati Rajdhani Express via Bhagalpur (Weekly)
25. Mumbai-Tirunelveli Superfast via Thiruvananthapuram (Bi-weekly)
26. Jammu Tawi-Darbhanga Garib Rath Express (Weekly)
27. Saharsa-Delhi Express via Patna (Weekly)
28. Gwalior-Bhopal Intercity Express via Guna (Five days a week)
29. Coimbatore-Tuticorin Link Service (Daily)
30. Howrah-Haridwar Superfast (Five days a week)
31. Machhalipatnam-Mumbai Superfast (Bi-weekly)
32. Varanasi-Jammu Tawi Superfast (Daily)
33. Gorakhpur-Mumbai Superfast (Daily)
34. Jhajhar-Patna
35. New Delhi-Palwal
36. New Delhi-Guwahati Rajdhani Express via Muzaffarpur (Weekly)
37. Veraval-Mumbai Link Service (Daily)
38. Ranchi-Patna Jan Shatabdi (Daily)
39. Jhansi-Chhindwara Superfast (Bi-weekly)
40. Mumbai-Jodhpur Express (Weekly)
41. Hajipur-Bagaha Link Service
42. Howrah-Delhi Link Service via Azimganj-Bhagalpur (Weekly)
43. Sitamarhi-Delhi Garib Rath Express via Patna (Weekly)
State government employees of Bengal will get a 30% hike in pay from April 1 on an average. Asim Dasgupta,Finance Minister announced this on
Thursday.The Pay Commission's recommendations were submitted to chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Thursday.
The Pay hike will benefit 1 million employees and about 400,000 pensioners.The Pay Commission recommended paying employees their arrears with effect from April 1, 2008, in three annual instalments, preferably from 2009-10.
The minimum basic pay recommended now is Rs 6,600. The commission recommended a minimum pension of Rs 3,300 and a maximum of Rs 35,000. The commission also suggested that pending instalments of DA be paid at an early date. All future instalments of DA should be released twice a year like that done by the Center. The recommendations also include increasing the maximum gratuity payable to Rs 6 lakh from Rs 2.5 lakh and medical allowance had been revised to Rs 300 per month from Rs 100.
Will the employees benefit from this interim railway budget ?
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav is expected to announce more sops for train travellers when he presents the interim railway budget in Parliament today (FEB- 13).
Some fare cuts are expected as there is redution in price of crude oil. People are expecting a " Lalu Magic " this year also. There expectations that Lalu would once again spare the average citizen from fare hikes and introduce some new trains.AC-III fares are likely to be slashed by 10 per cent and general class fares may also be slashed by 10 per cent.
Better pay package for faculty of Central technical educational institutions
The committee set up to review the scales for faculty of central technical educational institutions like IIMs and IITs, headed by former director of Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, Prof Govardhan Mehta, has submitted its report to the HRD Ministry.
Committe suggested that they get a better package than their counterparts in universities and colleges and these recommendations by the commitee will benefit more than 10,000 staff of institutions like IIT and IIM.
A month long strike by over 3 lakhs Bihar government employees ended following a Patna High Court order.
A division bench of the high court ordered the association of the government employees to end the strike after the state government assured the leaders that it would consider their demands.
The court directed the employees to return to work and ordered the government to resolve the deadlock by March 31.
Earlier, the government had submitted before the high court that it will not hold negotiations with the employees until they return to work.
Last week, the government decided to terminate the services of the striking employees. It had reportedly prepared the termination letters of nearly 1,000 employees to break the strike.
The employees went on a strike for an indefinite period from Jan 7 demanding implementation of the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission in “letter and spirit”. The government had refused the demands citing funds crunch.
Raising various demands, including pay revision on par with the Central Government employees and increasing the pension age of State Government employees to 60 years, the teachers and Government employees under the banner of SETO and FETO will strike work on February 17.Besides SETO, SETCO, SETF and FETO had decided to join the strike.
General convenor of SETO Mr Kottathala Mohanan told that Finance Minister Thomas Isaac had offered to revise the pay on July 1, 2008. But so far there has been no efforts to start the pay revision formalities. But during this period, the Central Government had given better salary package for around 50 lakh of its employees.
Government has issued orders for placing officers of the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and equivalents in the pay band-4.
As per the new orders, Lt Cols will now be in upgraded pay bracket of Rs37,400-67,000 (PB-4) with a grade pay of Rs8,000 from the earlier scale of Rs15,600-39,100 (PB-3) with a grade pay of Rs7,600. The Services were demanding a grade pay of Rs8,700 for this pay band created after the 6th Pay Commission recommendations.
With upgraded pay-scales, Lt Cols and their equivalents in the other two services will now be senior to deputy secretaries in central government, directors in state governments and senior superintendents of police, commandants (junior grade) in the Coast Guard and the non-functional selective grade in central engineering services.
As per the letter issued by a senior defence ministry official, PB-4 would now be applicable to tenure postings with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Director General (Quality Assurance) and National Cadet Corps as these organisations fall within the purview of the ministry and the pay allowances are paid from the its budget.
Officers on deputation and training on foreign assignments would also be in PB-4.
Officers posted with organisations such as Assam Rifles, National Security Guards and Border Road Organisation (BRO) will also benefit from the government’s move.