Endless wait for Gujarat govt staff on 30% HRA

The wait of Gujarat government employees to get a 30% House Rent Allowance (HRA) could be endless as the committee of ministers is yet to come to a conclusion. The state finance minister Nitin Patel said this from the floor of Gujarat assembly on Wednesday while replying to question of Congress MLA from Kodinar Mohanlal Vala.

Vala had asked the question to the minister that if the Gujarat government initiated any action as on the date of December 31, 2017 to revise the HRA of government employees at 30% as per the memorandum of ministry of finance of central government issued on July 31, 2015 to the state government. If the actions were initiated, the same would come under implementation.

Replying to it, Patel said: “The state government has formed a sub-committee of ministers and officials of the finance department on October 10, 2016. This was aimed at removing anomaly in salaries, allowances and arrears of government employees and officials. This sub-committee will submit the report to government and the same will be implemented.”

The MLA further asked that by what period of time the report would be submitted and the minister replied that there cannot be any constraint on the time the committee can take. The MLA alleged that this showed that there was a lack of will of state government to pay the allowances and arrears to its employees.