Chandigarh, December 18
The Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, today announced 3 per cent enhanced dearness allowance for its employees, pensioners and government-aided educational institutions with effect from July 1.
The amount due from July 1 till December 31 shall be credited to the GPF Accounts of the employees and it shall be treated as additional subscription and interest thereon shall accrue from the first day of the month next to the month in which the amount is drawn and credited to the accounts of employees.
The amount due from January 1 next year shall, however, be paid in cash.
This announcement will mean an additional liability of Rs 68.82 crore for the current year’s eight months and Rs 104 crore for the full next year.
Capt Amarinder Singh said: ‘’This is our New Year gift to the employees made possible because of an improvement in the financial situation. The revenue deficit is likely to be reduced by Rs 1,000 crore by the close of the financial year’’.
The Chief Minister, who addressed a press conference at his official residence, also announced the ‘’resumption’’ of the old-age and widow pension. The regular flow of monthly pensions at the existing rate would also commence on January 1 next.
The payment of pension was stopped following the detection of discrepancies and bogus beneficiaries who accounted for more than 50 per cent of such pensioners in some districts.The present government had ordered a state-wide survey and screening. The data was now available. Based on that and the improved financial situation, the pensions were being restored.
The Minister for Finance, Mr Lal Singh, said as a consequence of this announcement, the outgo from the treasury would be Rs 55.31 crore in respect of enhanced DA (49 per cent to the 52 per cent of pay) to employees, Rs 7.20 crore as pension money and Rs 6.31 crore to the government-aided educational
institutions for the current year’s eight months.
Capt Amarinder Singh also announced that due to improved power availability, the government had decided to release 20,000 tubewell connections immediately. This will clear the backlog upto March 31, 1998. Endevour was to provide adequate power to tubewells to enable farmers irrigate their wheat crop.
He reiterated the government stand on sacking of 909 panchayat secretaries on December 10 as per an inquiry held on the directions of the high court. Another 470 panchayat secretaries were removed in 2001. There were over 1.5 lakh applicants for 909 posts. The government would conduct a fresh written test/interview for 1,100-odd posts in February at the district level.
On the SYL issue, the Chief Minister said Punjab would file a curative petition and a civil writ in the Supreme Court. He would meet legal experts as well as the Union Minister for Water Resources in Delhi tomorrow to work out a strategy on the SYL issue.
