No halt on withdrawal of General Provident Fund advances: Haryana CM to govt employees

Despite the financial crisis due to COVID-19 lockdown in the state, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday informed that there will be no restriction on the withdrawal of the General Provident Fund (GPF) advances by the state government employees for unavoidable expenditure like marriages. This comes after the Haryana government said that there will be no new government jobs for the next year, and no LTC allowance either.

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State govt. employees will continue to get 17% DA: CM

During the meeting with various leaders of employees union through video conferencing, the Chief Minister said that the state government employees will continue to get the benefit of 17 percent Dearness Allowance (DA). He also clarified that final results for the recruitment on 12,316 posts, for which written examinations have already been conducted, will be declared immediately after the completion of the lockdown period.

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Khattar informed that 68,560 posts have been filled by Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) and about 5,000 by Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) in the last five year's tenure of present state government. The Chief Minister further said that the present state government has adopted a fair and transparent recruitment policy in the state under which jobs are being given to the youth on the basis of merit, as per the statement.

"Contrary to this, during the last 10 years tenure of the previous government in the state, only about 80,000 posts were filled up by HSSC and about 8,000 by HPSC," he added.

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During the meeting, Khattar also expressed his gratitude to the Nursing Welfare Association Haryana for their decision to forego the doubling of salaries of the regular employees and to contribute one day's pay to the Haryana Corona Relief Fund. He said that in a letter, the association has conveyed that the Chief Minister had announced to double the monthly salary nursing staff. However, in view of the COVID-19 outbreak, they have decided to forego the hike as the government needs funds to help fight the disease, the statement said.

Apart from this, regular nursing staff has also expressed their willingness to contribute one day's pay to the Haryana Corona Relief Fund. He also expressed his gratitude to all the health organisations, employees of Health Department, police personnel and sanitation workers who are continuously working in this hour of crisis.

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(with inputs from agency)