New Delhi:Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday slammed Center's decision to freeze Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief hike of Central Government's employees and armed forces personnel till July 2021.
In a video released by Congress party, Singh said, "I sincerely believe that it is not necessary at this stage to impose hardships on the Government servants and also on the armed forces people."
The Ministry of Finance on Thursday decided to freeze the increment in DA for 48 lakh central government employees and DR for 65 lakh pensioners till July 2021.
Leading the attack, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called this decision "insensitive" and "inhumane".
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He slammed the government for spending money on the Central Vista project while cutting down the pays of Government employees and pensioners.
"On one hand, you are arranging the extravagant expenditure for Bullet trains and Central Vista redevelopment projects and then you are reaping money from a middle class, instead of providing them relief from the financial burden at this time of the pandemic," he said.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal pointed out that government employees are anguished about this decision as cutting down DAs will harm them.
While, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala asserted, "There would have been no issues if this money was transferred to the migrant labourers. But if you are continuing with the project of new Parliament house, new building for ministers, new house for PM, you are continuing with zero cuts on government's expenditure which could save you an amount closed to Rs 2-2.5 lakh crore, then you are denying relief to your pensioners, employees and armed personnel."
Read: Instead of freezing DAs, Govt should stop wasteful expenditure: Congress
