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Date : 9.1.2017
7th Pay Commission News – Strange! – Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct Prevents announcement of Allowances, but not the Budget.
Reliable sources indicate that the central government will announce higher allowances under 7th Pay Commission for the central government employees only after the completion of five states assemblies poll process, as the model code of conduct of the election commission has come into effect from Wednesday.
Due to the elections in five states, reliable sources indicate that the hike in allowances for the Central Government employees, as per the revised recommendations of 7th Pay Commission, can be delayed till mid of March or even March end.
The Election Commission has imposed a model code of conduct in five states from Wednesday due to which the decision of hike in allowance is likely to be differed at least by March 8.
Sources indicate, “allowances would be increased only after the conclusion of the assembly elections. The sources have further added that there are no plans to give arrears along with allowances to Central Government employees”.
However, it is very strange that the model code of conduct doesn’t deter the government in the case of presenting the budget for 2017.
The opposition leaders alleged, “It will provide an opportunity to the government to make populist announcements to influence voters”. The elections are to be held on 4th of Feb and the government has announced to present the budget on the 1st of Feb, they said.
Sources also added, The decision to implement the recommendations of the 7th Pay Commission will come in March after eight to nine months of getting the basic pay hike to all central government employees. There are reports, however, that the government has no plans to pay allowances in arrears from August 2016 for all central government employees.
The move to present the budget just three days ahead of the elections in five states has invoked a huge criticism from the opposition parties, who claim that the budget will be used to ‘woo’ voters by giving them extra sops and other benefits.
A point to ponder here is, the committee on allowances setup by the government was ready to submit its report and were waiting for an invite from the finance ministry, but still the government extended the time limit to Feb 2017, without the committee asking for any extension.. Now its looks like that the government is buying more time on the pretext of election commission’s model code of conduct to delay the allowance implementation further.
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