AGARTALA, April 2 (TIWN): Tripura Govt. Employees Federation (TGEF) on wednesday reacting sharply on the recent declaration of the central pay scale by the state govt. claimed that the govt. had simply fooled the common govt employees of the state in the name of showing a lollipop ahead of the ADC poll. “Though the state govt. (last state in country) had accepted the implementation of the 6th pay commission recently, but the deprivation for the govt. employees still prevails because this has not brought any major change to the central pay scale,” TGEF General Secretary Samar Roy said here at TGEF office. Other States in country are in the process to implement 7th pay commission recommendations from January 2016 and Tripura Govt. trying to fool employees by offering 6th pay commission recommendations which was intentionally delayed for many years. Finance Commission awarded funds to different states including Tripura leaving no excuses left before the government for not paying its employees at par central scale. Still, the Minister Bhanulal said that they will face dearth of funds after investing 30 percent of the fund in the schemes,” Roy said. He added that the govt employees are still getting 38 percent less Dearness Allowance (DA) due to which all the employees ranging from Group D to higher officials are getting 50 percent less salary and allowances.

“We welcome the decision of the state govt. for the acceptance of the 6th pay commission here at the state, but we expected a hefty hike in the central pay scale,” Roy stated. Adding to it he further mentioned that no major hike is brought to the central pay scale whereas the common govt. employees of the state still deprived.

He said over one lakh government employees and 50,000 other employees are deprived of getting decent salaries even after the announcement of the 14th FC here at the state. When the 14th FC had already hiked its share for Tripura, the govt. here has been demanding for more Rs. 17, 000 crore as a special grant from the centre, said Roy. Whereas it is worthy to be mentioned here that Chief Minister Manik Sarkar on Tuesday announcing the central pay scale for the state govt. employees said, "Without getting sufficient funds from the 14th finance commission, the state government has taken this risky and courageous decision considering the interest of the government employees.” Sarkar said that due to the financial crunch, the state government could not give the dearness allowance to its employees at par with the central government.

Currently, state government employees and pensioners get dearness allowance of 69 percent while the central government employees get 107 percent.