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Allowance for Special Area postings

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, Feb. 3. Transfers to the islands will no more be considered "hard postings", with the Union Finance Minister, Jaswant Singh, today announcing a hard area allowance of 25 per cent for all Government employees posted in the Nicobar group of islands and upgrading the status of several other island cities that will automatically raise the house rent allowance (HRA) entitlement from April 1, 2004.

The interim budget has raised the status of Port Blair from `C' to `B-1' class city that will increase the HRA of employees posted in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, besides earning them an increase of 25 per cent of their basic salary as hard area allowance.

Similarly, rural areas of the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the entire Union Territory of Lakshadweep will also stand upgraded from their existing status of "unclassified" to `C' class city.

As a result, the HRA will be raised from 7.5 per cent to 15 per cent of the basic salary.

The status of Goa is also being raised from `C' to `B-1' from April 1, 2004.

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