On cabinet agenda: pay boost, gay rights

Days after millions of Central government employees got second installment of arrears arising from implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission, they are set to get more money.

Updated on: Sep 10, 2009, 24:24:01 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Days after millions of Central government employees got second installment of arrears arising from implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission, they are set to get more money.

The Cabinet on Thursday is expected to take a decision to increase dearness allowance by 5 per cent from July 1, 2009.

If cleared, around 5 million employees and 3.8 million pensioners will benefit. It will cause an additional burden of approximately Rs 2,600 crore (Rs 260 billion) till December 2009.

In February, the government had raised the DA by 6 per cent with a total outgo of Rs 5,160 crore for the year beginning January 2009.

The proposal has come at the time when the Finance Ministry has asked all Central government ministries to cut its non-plan expenditure by 15 per cent to combat rising fiscal deficit.

Gay rights

The Cabinet is also expected to discuss the issue of gay rights upholding the decision of the Delhi High Court that consensual sex between gays above the age of 18 should not be illegal. The Centre has to present its view on the issue in the Supreme Court on a petition filed by religious gurus like Baba Ramdev, who have challenged the high court decision.

Home loans

A proposal to provide interest subvention of 1 per cent on home loans up to Rs 10 lakh is also expected to be taken up. The move is aimed at giving stimulus to the real estate sector.

Crop loans

The Cabinet is also expected to consider a scheme for providing short-term crop loans at a rate 2 per cent lower to farmers, reeling under drought.
The interest subvention scheme, estimated to cost the exchequer Rs 2,011 crore, is also likely to be discussed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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