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| October 9, 2005 | Sunday | Ramzan 4, 1426 |
Compensatory allowance yet to be restored
GILGIT, Oct 8: The federal government has not yet taken any decision to restore Gilgit Compensatory Allowance (GCA) that was being paid to over 20,000 civil employees in the region at the rate of Rs450 every month but was slashed after June last by the Pay and Pension Committee.
Sources said that Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat had held out assurances to get the slashed allowance restored on Sept 5 during his visit to Gilgit but the employees said that it was not included in their September pay.
They demanded that the government should restore the allowance as the prime minister had already restored many an allowance in other parts of the country and in corporations which were earlier abolished by the PPC in June.
The stoppage of the allowance had badly hit the lower grade employees although the same was to the day permissible to the armed forces’ personnel based in the six districts of the Northern Areas.
They maintained that the civil employees in Northern Areas were already bereft of many allowances as compared to other parts of the country.
The recommendations of the PPC to enhance conveyance allowance were also not being implemented in the Northern Areas.
They argued that the winter season was the harshest in the Northern Areas but they were paid Rs10 to Rs20 per month from November to March as hill allowance to buy fuel which was impractical as firewood was sold out at Rs150 per 40kg and Rs30 for a litre of kerosene oil.
They appealed to the prime minister and the president to revise the hill allowance with respect to the existing fuel prices and also restore the Gilgit compensatory and conveyance allowance.
Earlier, Northern Areas Legislative Council Speaker Malik Mohammad Miskeen, in a statement, has approached the prime minister secretariat on the request of the government employees and the public representatives of the area to restore the GCA and Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas division had been directed to take action and send compliance report to the Prime Minister’s secretariat.
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