Festival Advance for Government Employees Hiked to Rs 10,000

Festival advance for government employees hiked to Rs 10,000

Mumbai: Keeping in view guidelines of the Centre, the Maharashtra government has decided to increase the festival advance of non-gazetted employees to Rs 10,000.

The advance, which was earlier Rs 5,000, will cover nine major festivals – Diwali, Ramzan Id, Christmas, Parsi New Year, Rosh Hoshnaa (Jewish new year), Buddha Jayanti, Independence Day, Republic Day and Sanvatsari (last day of Jain’s ‘Paryushan).

“Non-gazetted state government employees will now get festival advance of Rs 10,000 for nine major festivals. The limit earlier was Rs 5,000. Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has taken this decision keeping the guidelines of the Central government in mind,” an official from the state finance department said.

A Government Resolution (GR) in this regard has also been issued by the finance department on October 18.

“As per the GR, non-gazetted state government employees having pay band of Rs 4,800 or less will get this benefit,” the official said.

PTI

DA Hiked by 6 Percent : Diwali Gift for Maharashtra Government Employees

DA Hiked by 6 Percent : Diwali Gift for Maharashtra Government Employees

Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government today decided to hike the Dearness Allowance (DA) of state government employees by six per cent with effect from January 1, 2015.

The DA is now 113 per cent from the existing 107 per cent.

DA is calculated on total of basic pay and grade pay.

Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said the arrears would be given from October 1, 2015. Separate orders would be issued for payment of arrears from January 1, 2015 to September 30, 2015.

He said the decision was government’s Diwali gift to the employees. The decision will benefit 18 lakh officials and employees as well as 6.5 lakh pensioners.

PTI

Maharashtra government hikes coverage amount of group insurance for its employees

Maharashtra government hikes coverage amount of group insurance for its employees

Mumbai: In a landmark decision, the Maharashtra government has decided to increase the coverage amount of its group insurance policy for its employees.

The BJP-led government has also decided to allow newly appointed women employees to avail a maternity leave, which was earlier not allowed.

Maharashtra Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar said the government has decided to increase the the coverage amount of its group insurance policy from Rs 1,20,000 to Rs 3,60,000 for class III employees.
Whereas for class IV employees, the new insurance coverage will be Rs 2.40 lakh which was earlier Rs 60,000.

“The state employee organisations were demanding to increase the insurance policy coverage and hence the decision was taken,” Mungantiwar told reporters here.

He said that the monthly insurance premium will also increase and will be Rs 360 for class III and Rs 240 for class IV employees.

“The new changes will come in force from January 1, from the day of anniversary of the ‘government employee group insurance scheme’. The difference of the premium amount will be deducted from the salary of employee from November 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015,” Mungantiwar said, adding that the scheme will benefit 4.70 lakh state government employees.

He said the government has also decided to let women employees avail maternity leave, even if they have not completed at-least two years in service, as stipulated earlier.

“Earlier it was mandatory for women employees to have completed two years in government services to avail 180 days of paid maternity leave. Employee who had completed more than a year and less than two years were allowed to take maternity leave, but half their salary was deducted,” Mungantiwar said.

“Now even newly appointed government employees will be allowed to take paid maternity leave,” the minister said.

PTI

Retirement age for Maharashtra government doctors raised to 60

Retirement age for Maharashtra government doctors raised to 60

Mumbai: Maharashtra government today decided to increase the retirement age for government doctors under the medical and health services group ‘A’ category in the state to 60, from 58.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the state Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis here.
The decision will be implemented with retrospective effect from May 31, an official said after the Cabinet meeting.

Government doctors holding post graduate diplomas and degrees will be given special increments to ensure availability of sufficient human resources to provide health services.

The Cabinet also approved a proposal to amend the lacunae in the Transplantation of Human Organs Act (1994), and increase quantum of punishment for crimes pertaining to human organ transplants.

The Cabinet also approved a draft of the Maharashtra Acupuncture Treatment Act-2015. This will help in better coordination of acupuncture treatment.

At the meeting, it was decided to shortlist three backward cooperative ginning mills for financial assistance under the 12th Five Year Plan.

PTI

Re-employed person can receive DA on pension as well as salary: MAT

Re-employed person can receive DA on pension as well as salary: Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal

Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) held that a re-employed pensioner was entitled for receiving “dearness allowance (DA)” on his pension as well as on his salary.

“There is no rule that prohibits claiming dearness allowance on pension amount as well as on basic salary that is received after re-employment. The intention of legislation was to give benefit to the government employee who prefers retirement before the age of 55 years and is obviously subjected to payment of reduced amount as pension as compared to those who superannuate at 58 years,” Justice (retired) MN Gilani stated.

Applicant Mohammed Jameel had sought voluntary retirement from the Public Health Department on October 5, 1999, before attaining 55 years and joined as a lecturer in Law College in Gondia from the next day. He retired on February 9, 2007, after putting in seven years of teaching. On the same day, city-based district treasury officer issued an order of recovery of Rs1.31 lakh from his pension amount on the grounds that drawing “two dearness allowances” was not permitted. The petitioner received the DA on his pension as well as on his salary during his re-employment.

He challenged this order through counsel Tushar Mandlekar relying on the MCS Pension Rules that say in case of persons retiring before attaining the age of 55 years, the competent authority while fixing the pay should ignore the “entire pension” clause in case of employees other than Class I. The government relied on the guidelines issued through its circulars for pointing out that excess DA payment was not permissible.

Mandlekar argued the definition of “pension” as per Article 366 of the Constitution of India was inclusive of DA. The definition of pay, pension, and pensionable pay, are defined under Rule 9 (36), (37), (38), and Rule 60 of MCS, if read together along with the definition of pension under Article 366, makes it clear that DA was included in pay and pension, and thus could not be separated or deducted independently.

The tribunal held that Rule 157 (3) of MCS Pension Rules was independent and had its own identity, which mandated the government to ignore the “entire pension” clause that included allowances attached to it.

MAT added that there was no reason for paying and disbursing officer to rely on Rule 262 of Maharashtra Treasury Rules 1968 or government circulars. “The payment of pension to the re-employed pensioners is required to be fixed in accordance with the provisions of Chapter XIV of MCS Pension Rules, 1982. It is provided in Rule 157 (3) that “entire pension” needs to be ignored while fixing the new pay,” Justice Gilani said before quashing the district treasury officer order.

Read at: Times of India