8th Pay Commission: Lottery for central employees! The biggest change is going to happen in HRA rules till now.

At present, various types of discussions and activities regarding the 8th Pay Commission have become very intense among lakhs of central employees of the country. Everyone is curious to know how much their salary and allowances are going to increase this time. Meanwhile, many major employee organizations are strongly demanding a comprehensive and major change in the House Rent Allowance (HRA).

The staff side of the National Council-Joint Consultative Machinery (NC-JCM) has given many important suggestions to the government in this regard. The organizations clearly say that it is very important to immediately make several important changes and amendments in the HRA rules to match the current housing realities and skyrocketing rents, so that the employees can get real relief in this era of inflation.

What is the main demand of the employees regarding HRA?

Regarding House Rent Allowance, all the employee organizations say that the current HRA structure is not able to keep pace with the continuously increasing rents or rapidly increasing inflation in many big and metro cities of the country. In such a situation, there is a need for immediate major changes in this outdated structure.

The employee representatives have argued before the government that the cost of housing and everyday inflation within the country has gone up very rapidly in the last few years, while the amendments and reforms in HRA so far have completely failed to keep pace with this rising inflation. Employee organizations believe that if HRA is directly linked to DA (Dearness Allowance) and the classification of cities in the country is regularly updated, then this allowance will automatically adjust according to the rapidly changing economic conditions.

Know what demand has been placed for which category

According to the new proposal submitted by the employee organizations to the government, HRA should always be linked to the actual fare so that the employees get the relief that is truly in line with the prevailing rates in the market. Along with this, a major recommendation has also been made to fix new rates of allowance based on the total population of the cities.

Under this new proposal, it has been suggested that employees in ‘X Category’ cities with population of more than 50 lakh should get 40% HRA. At the same time, for ‘Y category’ cities with population up to 50 lakh, this rate is suggested to be 35%, and for employees living in small ‘Z category’ cities with population less than 5 lakh, it should be fixed at 30% HRA. Railway Senior Citizens Welfare Society has also openly supported this demand citing rapidly increasing cost of living and all-round inflation in urban areas.

When was the 8th Pay Commission formed?

According to government records, the 8th Pay Commission for the central employees of the country was officially constituted. This new and important Pay Commission is being headed by Honorable Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai. In this commission, Professor Pulak Ghosh has been appointed as part-time member and Pankaj Jain as member secretary. Now it remains to be seen what final decision the Commission takes on these demands of the employees.