In view of the financial crisis on account of COVID-19, the State government has toed the Centre’s line by freezing the Dearness Allowance (DA) of staff, including pensioners.
In a notification issued on Tuesday, the Finance Department said that the additional instalments of DA, with effect from January 1, payable to State government employees and pensioners, including employees and pensioners on UGC/ICAR/AICTE/NJPC scales of pay, would not be paid.The additional instalments due from July 1, 2020, and January 1, 2021, will also not be released until further orders, it said. However, the notification made it clear that DA would continue to be paid at the existing rates.
As and when the decision to release the future instalment of DA due from July 1, 2021 is taken by the government of India, the applicable rates of DA effective from January 1, 2020, and July 1 and January 1, 2021, will be restored prospectively and will be subsumed in the cumulative revised rate effective from July 1, 2021. Employees and pensioners are not entitled to arrears of DA from January 1, 2020, till June 30, 2021, the order said.
This will apply to full-time government employees, zilla panchayat employees, work-charged employees on regular time scales of pay, and full-time employees of aided educational institutions and universities who are on regular time scales of pay.
No leave encashment
The State government has also cancelled the system of encashment of earned leave. However, the employees retiring between January and December 2020 are eligible to encash their leaves in the month of retirement, an order issued by the Finance Department on Tuesday said.