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The Central government employees are set for a significant salary hike as the Centre is likely to announce DA hike in July benefitting lakhs of employees and pensioners.
According to an India.com report, the Centre is expected to merge the dearness allowance for employees and dearness relief for pensioners into the basic pay from July.
The DA, given twice a year to counter price rises and inflation, will benefit over 50 lakh employees and 67 lakh pensioners. In March, the government raised the DA by 4% to 50%, sparking speculation about merging it into the basic pay, a practice last done during the 5th Pay Commission in 2004.
Meanwhile, before the DA hike, the Centre has warned of strict action against employees for tardiness. Warning has been issued over habitual late attendance and early departure from the office.
According to a PTI report, this move comes after it was noticed that several employees were not registering their attendance in the Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS), with some employees regularly coming in late.
In an order, the Personnel Ministry suggested use of a mobile phone-based face authentication system that provides "live location detection and geo-tagging" among others as well.
The strict implementation of AEBAS has been recently reviewed, and due to the noted laxity, it is reiterated that all ministries, departments, and organizations (MDOs) will regularly monitor attendance reports. "Habitual late attendance and early leaving of the office should be viewed seriously and be essentially discouraged. Strict action against the defaulters may be initiated under the extant rules," the order stated.
All central government departments have been instructed to ensure that employees mark their attendance using AEBAS without fail.
Citing existing rules, the Personnel Ministry said, "Half-a-day's Casual Leave (CL) should be debited for each day of late attendance, but late attendance up to an hour, on not more than two occasions in a month, and for justifiable reasons may be condoned by the competent authority."
In addition to debiting Casual Leave (or Earned Leave when no CL is available), disciplinary action may also be initiated against government servants who habitually come to the office late, as it amounts to 'misconduct' under the conduct rules. "Early leaving is also to be treated in the same manner as late coming. The data relating to punctuality and attendance of an employee should also be taken into account while considering him/her for important assignments, trainings, deputations, and transfers/postings," the order added.
(With PTI inputs)
