DA hike for Central govt employees okayed

The Union Cabinet has given its approval to release an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to Central government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners with effect from January 1, 2018, representing an increase of two per cent over the existing rate of five per cent of the Basic Pay or Pension, to compensate for price rise.

This will benefit about 48.41 lakh Central government employees and 61.17 lakh pensioners, said a release.

The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief would be ₹6,077.72 crore per annum and ₹7,090.68 crore in the financial year 2018-19 for a period of 14 months from January 2018 to February 2019.

Commercial courts

It has also approved the Commercial Courts, Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts (Amendment) Bill, 2018 for introduction in Parliament. The Bill brings down the specified value of a commercial dispute to ₹3 lakh from the present ₹1 crore.

Therefore, commercial disputes of a reasonable value can be decided by commercial courts. This would bring down the time taken (currently 1,445 days) in resolution of commercial disputes of lesser value and thus further improve India’s ranking in the ease of doing business.

Arbitration Bill

The Cabinet also approved the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2018 for introduction in the Parliament.

It is a part of the government’s efforts to encourage institutional arbitration for settlement of disputes and make India a centre of robust Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanism. The Amendments in the Act of 1996 will facilitate achieving the goal of improving institutional arbitration by establishing an independent body to lay down standards, make arbitration process more party friendly, cost effective and ensure timely disposal of arbitration cases.

UPSC-PSC, Mauritius

The Cabinet has approved signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and Public Service Commission (PSC) of Mauritius. The MoU will strengthen the existing relationship between UPSC and PSC, Mauritius. It will facilitate sharing of experience and expertise of both the parties in the area of recruitment.

Also, the Cabinet has approved proposal to promulgate amendment of Municipalities Regulation, 2018 for various union territories — Daman and Diu; Dadra and Nagar Haveli Municipal Council and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Municipal).

It will help ensure better provisions for the constitution, administration and powers of the Municipalities in the Union Territories of Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Andaman and Nicobar islands.

CCEA nod

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its nod for promotion of agricultural mechanisation for managing crop residue in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and National Capital Territory of Delhi.

The total outgo from the Central funds would be ₹1,151.80 crore (₹591.65 crore in 2018-19 and ₹560.15 crore in 2019-20).

The scheme includes financial assistance at 80 per cent of the project cost for cooperative societies of the farmers, including self help groups, registered farmers societies, group of women farmers, among others. It also provides for financial assistance to the farmers for at 50 per cent of the machinery cost to individual farmer for crop residue management.

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