7th CPC - Special Duty Allowance In The Committee Report

7th Pay Commission | Report of Committee| Special Duty Allowance 

Existing Provisions: It is granted to attract civilian employees to seek posting in North Eastern and Ladakh regions, in view of the risk and hardship prevailing in these areas. At present, SDA is paid @12.5% to Central Government Employees including officers of the All India Services, serving in the North Eastern Region states (including Sikkim) and Union Territories of A&N and Lakshadweep group of Islands & Ladakh. In addition, „Special Allowance for Officers belonging to North – East Cadres of AIS‟ is granted to AIS Officers belonging to the North East Cadres and posted in the North Eastern states at 25%.

Recommendations of 7th CPC: The 7th CPC has recommended that SDA for AIS officers should be paid at the rate of 30 percent of Basic Pay and for other civilian employees at the rate of 10 percent of Basic Pay.

Demands:

I. President Secretariat: SDA@30% be granted to employees of NEHU, Shillong.

II. Secretary, All Ladakh Central Government Employees Association through Minister, Social Justice & Empowerment, Governor‟s Secretariat, J&K, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, MP and Shri Thupstan Chhewang, MP:SDA@25% be granted to employees posted in Ladakh region in addition to Special Compensatory (Remote

Locality) Allowance.

III. Chief Minister, Manipur: SDA be allowed to continue and quantum be increased for officers posted in theNE.

IV. Ministry of Home Affairs: SDA admissible to AIS Service officers may be kept separate.

V. National Council (Staff Side), JCM: The SDA and Special Compensatory Allowance (SCA) are being paid concurrently. However, 7th CPC has recommended that both SDA and SCA should not be granted concurrently. Therefore, following changes have been demanded:

7th CPC recommendations to the effect that where Tough Area Compensatory Allowance is given, the SDA must be withdrawn, should be rejected.

Reduction in the present rate of SDA of 12.5% should not be accepted.

Discrimination in the grant of SDA between officers of AIS and other employees must be removed and all to be paid SDA at the same rate.

VI. Ministry of Defence: SDA to the Defence Forces at the same rate as applicable to civilian non-AIS employees is to be given. The admissibility of the allowance would be subject to a scheme to be worked out by Ministry of Defence in consultation with Ministry of Finance.

VII. J&K IAS Officers Association:

(i) SDA@12.5% of Basic Pay be granted to the regions of Jammu Province and Kashmir Valley

(ii) Additional Monetary Incentive @25% as payable to Officers belonging to NE Cadres of AIS be allowed.

Analysis and Recommendations of the Committee:

It is observed that the existing provisions relating to SDA at present paid @12.5% to Central Government Employees including officers of the All India Services, serving in the North Eastern Region states (including Sikkim) and Union Territories of A&N and Lakshadweep group of Islands & Ladakh and „Special Allowance for Officers belonging to North – East Cadres of AIS‟ granted @25% as per DoPT‟s OM dated 10th February, 2009 have inadvertently been presented by merging them together in the 7th CPC Report. However, both these allowances are governed differently and SDA @ 12.5% is paid to all officers irrespective of their service but „Special Allowance for Officers belonging to North – East Cadres of AIS‟ is granted @25% to AIS officers of NE Cadre serving in the Cadre.

The Committee, therefore, recommends that the two allowances, SDA and „Special Allowance for Officers belonging to North – East Cadres of AIS‟, may continue to be paid separately as at present at the rate of 10% and 20% respectively after applying the multiplying factor of 0.8 for percentage-based allowances.

As regards the demand of the Ministry of Defence, the Committee is of the view that the facilities available to Defence Forces differ significantly from those available to Civilian employees. Moreover, the demand pertains to including a new category in the existing allowance, which does not come under the purview of the Committee.

Demands relating to NEHU, addition of more categories or enhancement of rates and demands of J&K Officers‟ Association are also outside the purview of this Committee