TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The Congress has threatened to approach the Election Commission of India against Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar for raising the dearness allowance to 100 percent, while the Lok Sabha elections are still on across the country, alleging it is a strategy to garner votes from over 10,000 government employees who are yet to vote through postal ballot.
Party chief John Fernandes said they would also urge EC to segregate postal ballot voting from April 15 to May 15 in the context of this announcement.
“What was the need to hurry? The DA could be hiked after May 16 (counting day). We feel that the CM is panicking about his party’s defeat and is preparing to go to any level for votes,” he alleged.
The party said that BJP is attempting to lure 10,500 government employees who are yet to vote through postal ballot, since they were on election duty across different polling stations in the country.
Fernandes said they are likely to approach the court against Parrikar as they are in talks with a Supreme Court lawyer in this regard. He further clarified that it was indeed Union government that took a cabinet decision in February this year to raise DA to 100 percent of the basic from 90 percent to benefit its 50 lakh employees and 30 lakh pensioners.
In Goa, nearly 65,000 civil servants and over 22,000 pensioners will be get DA from January 2014.
