Now, retd Hry govt staff to get withheld ‘gratuity’ faster

CHANDIGARH: The principal accountant general of Haryana has put the gratuity — the muchsought after post-retirement financial benefit — of nearly 2,400 employees on hold, with the state government failing to submit the necessary papers of employees.

The gratuity (or Dcrg--death cum retirement gratuity) is paid to the retiring government servant as one-time lump sum benefit. The maximum amount under ‘gratuity’ that an employee on superannuation gets is ₹20 lakh and this varies as per the length of service and basic pay. In case of death of the employee during service, this benefit is payable to the family member.

In a bid to avoid further delay, the Manohar Lal Khattar government has decided that the “withheld amount will now be released” by the head of the concerned department and without sending the revised case to the accountant general (AG) office, according to a recent communiqué of the finance department (FD). In its letter to all heads of the departments, divisional commissioners, and deputy commissioners, the FD has said that the AG office has informed that “approximately 2,400 cases” of withheld amount of DCRG are pending in the absence of “no dues certificate.” The department has further said, “The no dues certificate has been submitted by the department after a long gap from the date of retirement of the retiree, which creates harassment to the retiree.”

And to avoid the delay in releasing this “withheld amount”, in future, the head of the department will release the amount after ensuring “no dues towards the pensioners”. The head of the department will release this “withheld amount” without referring the revised case to the AG office, the FD has directed.

“The concerned department will continue to send the retiring employees cases to release the gratuity as earlier to the AG office. In case the AG office withholds the amount, the head of the department after fulfilling all conditions will himself release the amount and intimate the AG office. This has been done to ensure the retired employees get their due at the earliest,” a senior officer of the FD said.

Government sources say this decision has come into force from July 20 and will be applicable “in respect of new cases” in future and the old cases of already “withheld amount” will be cleared by the AG office as per the existing procedure.