SAD to protest for against Congress over 22 pc Dearness Allowance

(UNI) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) said it would agitate to force the sleeping Congress government to release 22 per cent Dearness Allowance to State employees besides immediate release of the Sixth Pay Commission report and regularisation of 27, 000 employees.

In a statement issued here, former finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa asked the Congress government to come clean and tell why it was not releasing four installments of DA amounting to a total of Rs 4,000 crore. He said when the fifth installment of DA was due now the government had “approved” release of one installment of only six per cent. “This is a pittance considering that this approval amounts to only a two per cent increase on the recommendations of the seventh central pay commission”.

Asking the Congress government not to play games with employees and try to befool them as it had befooled and betrayed farmers, youth and Dalits, Mr Dhindsa said the government should give interim relief to employees immediately by hiking the basic pay by 10 per cent after merging DA with it. “We will agitate to make this a reality”, he added.

Mr Dhindsa also lambasted the Congress government for deliberately delaying release of the report of the sixth Punjab Pay Commission. He said instead of giving relief to State employees by directing the Commission to submit its report immediately, the government had extended its term.