New Delhi: The Union Cabinet Thursday cleared a 3% hike in Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief for the central government employees and pensioners.
Now the dearness allowance for central government employees and dearness relief for the central government pensioners will be 31% of their salaries and pensions.
Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said it will benefit 47.14 lakh central government employees and more than 68.62 lakh central government pensioners.
“It will entail an additional expenditure of Rs 9488.75 crore,” Thakur told reporters after the cabinet meeting.
The Government had hiked the dearness allowance and dearness relief from 17% to 28% effective from July 1 this year.
PM Gati Shakti
Today, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) also approved the PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan including the institutional framework for rolling out, implementation, monitoring and support mechanism for providing multi-modal connectivity.
The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan for multi-modal connectivity was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched on October 13.
Implementation framework includes Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGOS), Network Planning Group (NPG) and Technical Support Unit (TSU) with required technical competencies.
3-tier monitoring system for PM Gati Shakti
Today, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) also cleared several decisions for implementation of PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan in motion.
The PM Gati Shakti NMP will be monitored in a three-tier system. At the top of this three-tier system will be an Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) headed by Cabinet Secretary.
Second, a Multimodal Network Planning Group (NPG) will be constituted with representation from the heads of the Network Planning Division from different ministries and departments.
At the third tier, a Technical Support Unit (TSU) will be set up under the Logistics Division of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
PM Gati Shakti EGoS
PM Gati Shakti EGoS will be headed by Cabinet Secretary and it will have secretaries of 18 ministries as members and head of logistics division as Member Convenor.
“The EGoS has been mandated to review and monitor implementation of the PM GatiShakti NMP to ensure logistics efficiency. It is empowered to prescribe framework and norms for undertaking any subsequent amendments to the NMP,” said the government.
The EGoS will set out the procedure and definitive framework for synchronization of various activities, and ensure that various initiatives of infrastructure development are part of the common integrated digital platform.
It will also look at the interventions required to meet the demand side, in efficiently transporting bulk goods on the requirement of various Ministries like Steel, Coal and Fertilizer among others.
Network Planning Group
The CCEA has also approved formation, composition and terms of reference for the Network Planning Group (NPG) consisting of heads of the Network Planning wing of respective infrastructure ministries and it will assist the EGOS.
Officials said given the complex nature of overall integration of networks, enhancing optimization to avoid duplication of works for holistic development of any region as well as reducing logistics costs through micro-plan detailing, the Technical Support Unit (TSU) is approved for providing the required competencies.
Technical Support Unit
According to officials, the structure of TSU has also been approved today.
TSU will have domain experts from various infrastructure sectors as aviation, maritime, public transport, rail, roads and ports etc. and subject matter experts (SMEs) as urban and transport planning, structures (roads, bridges & buildings), power, pipeline, GIS, ICT, finance and market, logistics and data analytics among others.
“The PM Gati Shakti NMP is intended to break departmental silos and bring in more holistic and integrated planning and execution of projects with a view to address the issues of multi-modal connectivity and last mile connectivity,” said the government.
Read: COVID-19: Financial conditions of emerging economies improve despite high inflation, Delta challenge
