Staff of the Indian Railways who have been living in quarters or accommodation provided by their employer have reason to celebrate. The Railways has decided to write off the maintenance fee arrears for six years, that is, 2010 to 2016. The fee had been revised in 2017 by the Railway board. However, the employees had protested and many had refused to pay the increased amount.
The railway board has now approved a 10% yearly rent hike, which will come into effect on July 1, every year retrospectively from July, 2017. Therefore, the employees residing in railway quarters will have to pay rent arrears dues for the last 21 months.
According to the new notification from the Railway board, the actual recoveries of revised standard rent will be made only from July 01, 2016. It also highlights that this implies that a significant amount between July 2010 and July 2016 has been written off.
Not long ago, HRKatha had also reported how Indian Railways will now also be providing its employees with chat-based healthcare services. It also increased the running allowance of its guards, loco pilots and assistant loco pilots. This move, however, increased the annual burden of allowances by Rs 1,225 crore. That is not all, the dearness allowance to Railway employees was also increased from 9 per cent to 12 per cent with effect from 1 January, 2019.