Bhubaneswar, March 20 -- At a time when the Central government employees are expecting a hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) as per the 7th Pay Commission recommendations, the rise in COVID-19 cases across the country has once again brought around an ambiguous situation.

Though expectations are still there that the centre will unfreeze the DA and announce it for the July-December 2020 period, some believe that the surge in COVID cases might pose a hindrance in the same.

The central government employees are presently getting DA at 17 per cent rate and it will continue till July 2021 (as per the government's earlier decision while freezing the DA last year). Once unfreezed, the hike in DA and Dearness Relief (DR) will benefit over 48 lakh emp...