Bhopal: Orders have been issued by the Finance Department in compliance with the announcement of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan to provide special relief to the state government employees on the occasion of festival. A festival advance of Rs 10 thousand will be given between November 2020 to March 31, 2021, to government servants who get a total salary of Rs 40 thousand or less. For this, the state government is going to implement the ‘Special Festival Advance Scheme’.
In addition, 25 percent of the third and last installment of the arrears of the 7th pay scale will be paid to the government servants in the month of November itself. This decision of the state government, on the occasion of festival, will boost economic activities besides providing relief to the government employees.
The state government today ordered all departments, divisional commissioners, departmental heads and district collectors to take action with regard to the payment.
Finance Minister Jagdish Devda has expressed gratitude for the decision taken in the interest of the employees during festival time with a view to boost economic activities that had been slowed down due to Covid 19. He said that this step reflects the sensitivity of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
Contractual, permanent workers, daily wage earners will also get benefits
Contractual workers, permanent employees, daily wage earners and employees of semi-government institutions receiving salary from cent percent government grant have also been included under the special festival advance scheme. Decision to implement the scheme for local body and other corporation / board employees will be taken by the concerned bodies. For permanent employees, the monthly salary limit is Rs 12 thousand or less. The implementation of the scheme will incur an additional expense of nearly Rs 400 crores on the state government.
Payment of arrears
The government servants will be paid 25 percent of the third and final installment of the arrears of the approved 7th pay scale in the month of November itself.
It may be noted that the first and second installments of the arrears of the 7th pay scale were given to government servants in May, 2018 and May 2019. The third and final installment was to be paid in May 2020 but due to shortfall in revenue receipts due to Covid-19, the installment could not be paid. With a view to encourage economic activities in the festival season, decision has been taken to pay 25 percent of the third and last installment of the arrears of the 7th pay scale to the government servants in the month of November. With the payment of this amount, the government is likely to incur an additional expenditure of about Rs 375 crore.
