Sushil Manav
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 21
The state Finance Department on Thursday gave its approval to the long-awaited allowances of government employees in accordance with the 7th Pay Commission. But the issue of house rent allowance (HRA) and some others may take some more time.
Sources in the Finance Department confirmed that approval was granted on Thursday to release 10 types of allowances — children education allowance, travelling allowance, fixed medical allowance, non-practicing allowance for HCMS doctors, AYUSH doctors, dental surgeons and veterinarians, conveyance allowance for differently abled, special allowances for safai karamcharis, uniform and washing allowance (for Group D employees), hill compensation allowance (for Morni area), cycle allowance (for Group D employees) and special allowance on birth of children of differently abled women employees as per the central government rules.
As far as HRA and some department-specific allowances are concerned, the government has decided to constitute a committee for further study on the issue.
“Haryana has witnessed good pace of urbanisation in the past some years. However, the point to be studied is whether the classification of cities into A, B, C and D category by the central government will be applicable in the case of Haryana or not, ” said an official who did not want to be quoted.
He said that it has been decided that a committee be constituted to study various factors, including the price index and rent of houses in various towns and cities of the state for the purpose of deciding HRA of the employees.
Claiming that Haryana is only the fifth state after Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Rajasthan to approve allowances under the 7th Pay Commission report, he said that the government wants to release the allowances in a phased manner.
Besides the HRA, the issue of departmental-specific allowance would also be given to the committee to decide, said the sources.
Among departmental-specific allowances, police personnel get uniform allowance, kit allowance, risk allowance and ration allowance etc while nurses in the Health Department get uniform allowance and some other allowances.
Sources said that the employees would get these allowances in a phased manner as and when decisions are taken by the committee.
Meanwhile, sources said that approval of salaries as per the 7th Pay Commission to university professors, associate professors and assistant professors and college teachers could also take some time as some information sought from the field is yet to be received by the Finance Department.
The allowances
3
7