02 Feb, 2017 04:33 PM

Centre to hike allowances from April 1, says NJCA convenor

A day after Budget 2017 was tabled in the Parliament by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the Central Government employees were upset as the Union Minister nowhere mentioned any increase in the hike of allowances in the 7th Pay Commission. But the members of National Joint Action Committee (NJCA) are an optimist about the implementation of 7CPC and believe that the government will come up with some positive news on April 1. The NJCA also believe that the Union Government will be implementing the 7CPC latest by April 1, after the end of financial year.

On Wednesday, the central government employees were gripped with pessimism after Arun Jaitley made no reference to the anomalies related to 7CPC in his Budget speech. “All of us were eagerly waiting for Finance Minister to make some announcement on minimum wages. But after Mr Jaitley’s speech ended without mentioning a single word about the increase in the minimum wage, most of us were upset,” Shiv Gopal Mishra, NJCA chief said.

He further added, “The government may implement the 7CPC by April 1 and their demand to increase the minimum wage will also be implemented. If the government fails to increase minimum wages from Rs 18,000 to Rs 25,000 then we will launch a massive protest against the government”.

The NJCA has been actively involved with the Centre where they are seeking a revision of minimum salary from Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000. The NJCA members and its conveyor had also met Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, a day after the implementation of 7CPC and had kept their demands in front of senior leaders.

Shiv Gopal Mishra is quite optimist about the hike in allowances of government employees but he is not sure that their demands of raising the minimum wage would be fulfilled by the government.

On Wednesday, most of the senior central government employees were eagerly waiting for the Budget speech as most of them expected the Finance Minister to speak on the 7CPC.

On July 1, 2016, the 7th Pay Commission was approved by the Union Cabinet. The date of implementation was fixed by the high-powered committee as for January 1, 2016. From the month of July, the central government employees were provided with the hiked salaries, along with the arrears of six months. But the hike was only related to the basic component of their pay. The increase in allowances was upheld, due to the anomalies raised by employees unions.

The implementation of 7th Pay Commission will directly benefit around 47 lakh central government employees, along with 53 lakh pensioners. In the 7th Pay Commission, the minimum wage has been revised from Rs 7,000 to Rs 18,000. While the maximum salary has been capped at Rs 2.5 lakh.

Source : http://www.india.com/news/india/7th-pay-commission-centre-to-hike-allowances-of-central-govt-employees-from-april-1-says-njca-convenor-1805611/