In a major reprieve to the state government employees, the Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today gave his nod to grant installment of 10% Dearness Allowance (DA) to them in cash along with the salary for the month of February, 2014. A decision to this effect was taken by the Chief Minister during a meeting with the Punjab and UT Mulazam Sangarsh Committee jointly led by its conveners Mr. Sajjan Singh and Mr. Ranbeer Dhillon here at Punjab Bhawan this evening. Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the Chief Minister's Office said that it was also decided in the meeting that the arrears of DA due from January 1 to June 30, 2013 would be credited to the GPF accounts of the employees. A decision regarding the payment of arrears of DA from July 1, 2013 to January 31 would be taken in due course of time. It was informed in the meeting that the estimated expenditure on account for release of DA @ 10% would be Rs 742. 41 crore annually, whereas the payment of arrear from January 1 to June 30, 2013 @ 8% would involve a financial liability of Rs 483 crore per annum. Conceding the long pending demand of the employees to enhance the commutation of pension, the Chief Minister also approved to hike the same from existing 20% to 30%.
Badal also constituted a high level committee under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary including Principal Secretary Finance, Secretary Personnel, Legal Remembrancer, Principal Secretary General Administration and Principal Secretary Transport besides Secretary of any other concerned department as the need may be for working a time bound and uniform policy for reviewing the existing outsourcing policy, New Pension Scheme, streamlining and management of GPF accounts of the Group D employees and to examine the possibility of extending pensionary benefits to the employees of board and corporations. In a significant decision, the Chief Minister also sanctioned 1925 posts in Government Aided Colleges and 4000 posts in the Government Aided Schools to enable these educational institutions to carry out the recruitment process at the earliest with an aim to impart quality education to students. On the issue raised by the delegation regarding the ban imposed on regular appointments in various departments, the Chief Minister reiterated that the state government was liberal in giving permission to fill the vacant posts in various departments as per there requirement raised from time to time adding that 1.25 lakh regular appointments have been made since 2007.
The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. SK Sandhu, Principal Secretary Finance Mr. DP Reddy, Principal Secretary Home Mr. DS Bains, Principal Secretary Irrigation Mr. Sarvesh Kaushal, Principal Secretary Rural Development and Panchayat Mr. Mandeep Singh Sandhu, Principal Secretary Health Ms. Vinnie Mahajan, Principal Secretary Higher Education Dr Roshan Sunkaria, Principal Secretary Education Ms. Anjali Bhawra, Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr. Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, Secretary Personnel Ms. Seema Jain and Director Local Government Mr. Priyank Bharti