Announcements regarding transport allowances for central government employees have been clarified by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in an office memorandum. Those who failed to attend office during the lockdown period and had resorted to working from home will not be granted the transport allowance.
The memorandum dating December 1, 2020, states the TA has been provided to central government employees to compensate them for having spent the money in commuting between their residences and offices during lockdown.
"Central Government employees, who could not attend office in a whole calendar month during (the) Lockdown period, are not eligible to draw Transport Allowance for that month as these employees had not incurred any expenditure for commuting office," the DoPT order said.
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However, the BJP government at the Centre had mentioned some exceptions to certain employees during the lockdown period to choose to stay at home to work. Specific orders too, were released in this regard.
No TA for physically disabled, pregnant women employees:
The DoPT memorandum clarifies that employees who are physically disabled as well as pregnant women employees are barred from benefiting from the transport allowances. These employees in specific however, were provided with exemptions to not attend the office premises by the Centre during the lockdown. TAs will not be provided to them as by choosing to work from home, these employees incurred no expenditure on commuting.
The non-entitled officers/officials will also not be eligible to make use of the TAs, as they are provided with a temporary official car to commute between office and residences. Since the vehicle provision lasted the entire calendar month owing to the suspension of public transport services due to the pandemic, they will also not get the said TA benefits.
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