Rahul Gandhi strikes at the Government on halting hike in Dearness allowances and Dearness relief

Last updated on February 9th, 2023 at 01:35 pm

Member of Parliament Rahul Gandhi strikes at the Government on Friday saying, suspension of Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) is an inhuman and insensitive choice. The contribution of central government employees, soldiers, and pensioners has been exceptional in building our economy, he added.

Suspending DA from around 1.14 crore government employees and pensioners, to save approximately ₹21,000 crores will hurt the employees, instead, the Government should have halted the Bullet Train project and the Central Vista beautification project, which cost crores of money, Rahul tweeted.

As per the official statement, the Central Government’s move will help save Rs 37,350 crore in financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22. A related step will save states Rs 82,566 crores, which will save around Rs 1.20 lakh crores.

After questions arising on an unexpected decision of cutting DA and DR, the Government stated that expenditure rose on healthcare and welfare measures, boosting the economy with funds, maintaining medical infrastructures, purchasing rapid test kits amid coronavirus pandemic, and lockdown. It compelled them to decide on cutting the DA and DR hike.

However, Rahul took to twitter to scrutinize the expenditure done by Government on expensive infrastructure projects that could have been put to rest for a while, and the money could have been utilized for public health services and administrations amid Covid-19. e.g., Bullet Train project cost roughly ₹1.1 lakh crore, and the Central Vista beautification project costs around Rs 12,879 crores.

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Former PM Manmohan Singh additionally criticized the move stating that it wasn’t required at this juncture to impose hardships on government workers and army workforce.

Article Credit: NDTV News/The Economic Times/The Hindu