Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
A document is circulating on social media claiming that the Ministry of Finance has decided to keep the Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief payable to Central Government employees and pensioners in abeyance due to the rise in Covid-19 cases in India. The document also states that these orders shall be applicable to all Central government employees and Central Government pensioners. The finance department of all ministries is hereby directed to control additional expenditure as justifiable, it reads. Newschecker has found the claim to be false.
Newschecker team received several requests on our WhatsApp Helpline (+91 9999499044) for fact-checking this claim.
In addition to being shared on WhatsApp, Newschecker has found that the claim is being shared on Twitter also, as seen below:
This claim has come to light in recent times as the Central Government announced that it plans to release Dearness Allowance arrears of Central Government employees. These arrears have been pending for 18 months. The Central Government hiked the DA from 17% to 31% last year in October, the arrears for which are pending. The current government is also in discussion to further increase the DA to compensate for inflation, according to recent media reports.
Also read: Fake Notice Claiming UGC Proposes Offline Examination Goes Viral
Fact Check/ Verification
Newschecker conducted a keyword search with the words ‘dearness’, ‘allowance’, ‘abeyance’ and found a tweet by the Press Information Bureau Fact Check account. The tweet stated “A Fake order issued in the name of the Ministry of Finance claiming that the ‘Dearness Allowance & Dearness Relief payable to Central Govt employees and pensioners will be kept in abeyance’ is in circulation. “ It further added that no such order had been issued by the Finance Ministry.
The Ministry of Finance Twitter account also retweeted this fact check.
Newschecker team found no such notice on the Ministry of Finance website.
Upon further investigation, we found that the document circulating on social media is not in congruence with the other documents released by the Ministry of Finance. The official memorandum released by them has a few distinctions in the subject line, and the phrase “OFFICE MEMORANDUM” is usually underlined along with an asterisks being present below the department name.
The Newschecker team also contacted the Section Officer at the Ministry of Finance who stated “The document is not on the Ministry of Finance website and as a result is a fake document.”
Conclusion
The viral claim that the Ministry of Finance had kept the Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief payable to Central Government employees and pensioners in abeyance, due to rise in Covid-19 cases is False.
Result: False
Our Sources:
Section Officer, Ministry of Finance
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Authors
Vaibhav is a part of Newschecker’s English team, where he spots and debunks all kinds of misinformation, making the rounds on the internet. A Journalism graduate from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai, he holds an M.A degree in Philosophy and an M.Phil from Delhi University.
