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DA freeze of PSU staff: Signs of sinking economy, says Cong
KT NEWS SERVICE. Dated: 11/20/2020 11:03:27 PM
NEW DELHI, Nov 20: The Congress on Friday alleged a move by the Centre to freeze the additional dearness allowance to the employees of the central public sector undertakings (PSUs) and claimed this is "yet another sign of a sinking economy."
The government, however, did not react to the allegation based on a circular issued on Thursday, causing concern among the PSU employees. The allegation came from former Congress President Rahul Gandhi in a tweet: "Food inflation rises to 11.1 per cent. But the Modi government is freezing DA instead of increasing it for central PSU employees. While the condition of government employees is poor, the capitalist 'friends' are happy."
Rahul was referring to a circular by which the government froze additional DA instalments due from October 1 for the PSU employees till June 30, 2021. The additional DA from January 1, 2021 to April 1, 2021 will not be paid, the Department of Public Enterprises said. This decision impacts over 14.5 lakh employees across 339 central PSUs. It follows retrospective DA cut to 113 lakh central government employees and pensioners, including the Armed Forces, in April 2020.
Harping on Rahul's tweet, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said: "The economy is spinning out of control and everyone is in trouble. It is not just the unorganised sector, but even the government employees are bearing the brunt of incompetent handling of the Indian economy."
She said the skyrocketing prices and the inflation hitting a 6-year high of 7.61% amounts to salary cuts for the central government employees, PSU staff, pensioners and the Armed Forces."
"Why does the Modi government not shelve discretionary and vanity expenditure like the Rs 20,000-crore Central Vista project, the Rs 1.10 lakh crore bullet train project, or cut 30 per cent of the wasteful expenditure of the government, which will come to close to Rs 2.5 lakh crore," she asked.
Supriya alleged that the DA freeze was a hint to the private sector to withhold salary hikes or appraisals. "Many state governments have already frozen DA and Dearness pay of their employees. They will perhaps now move to do so for state PSUs as well," she added.