No. Confd./DA-2020
Dated :24.04.2020
To
The Cabinet Secretary,
Government of India,
Cabinet Secretariat
Rashtrapati Bhawan,
New Delhi
Sub: Freezing of dearness allowance to Central Government employees and Dearness relief to Central Government pensioners at current rates till July, 2021.
Dear Sir,
We solicit your kind reference to the O.M. No. 1/12020-E.I (B) dated 23rd April, 2020 issued by the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance on the above subject in view of the crisis arising out of the pandemic Covid-19.
The Central Government employees throughout the country noted the contents of the above cited O.M. with surprise and anguish. As you are aware, the Central Government employees responded admirably the call of the Honourable Prime Minister to donate one day’s salary to the Prime Minister’s Relief fund to enable the Government to meet out the financial exigencies arising out of the pandemic. This apart, both the employees and pensioners have contributed immensely to the Prime Minister’s and respective Chief Minister’s public relief funds voluntarily.
It was unfortunate that the Government did not cause any consultation with the standing committee of the JCM, the negotiating forum of the Central Government employees and took an arbitrary and unilateral decision on a vital matter like freezing the wages.
Also Read : Protest against freezing of Dearness Allowance – NCJCM writes to Cabinet Secretary
The Government are aware that quite a number of employees are deployed and consequently are involved in various governmental activities and services meant to combat the spread of the pandemic Covid-19 especially of those departments declared as emergency services viz, health, postal, defence, railways etc. endangering even their life. Not taking into confidence the employees’ representatives before taking decision to impose a mandatory freeze of dearness allowance is in utter disregard to the norms and procedure followed by the previous Governments when such situation had arisen. Besides at no previous occasion, the Government of India had resorted to impounding the dues arbitrarily. We, therefore, oppose the arbitrary decision of the Government to impound the DA .
Further, we are to inform you that the decision to deny the payment of the freezed amount even after overcoming the crisis is totally unacceptable to the employees. We are pained to note that the Government has been shifting the financial burden of the crisis on to the employees and workers, when in fact they require the financial assistance from the Government to face the crisis caused by the pandemic.
In the circumstance, we request you to direct the Ministry of Finance to rescind the decision to impound the DA and withdraw the O.M., as the Government has no legal or moral authority to take such a decision. The refusal to accede to this demand will only pave the way for an avoidable confrontation and agitation.
Thanking you,
Yours Sincerely,
(R N Parashar)
Secretary General
Copy to:
The Secretary, Personnel,
Department of personnel and Training,
Government of India,
North Block, New Delhi. 110 001
