new delhi bharatiya pensioners manch bms has sought intervention of prime minister narendra modi for the release of dearness allowance da and dearness relief dr arrears for central government employees and pensioners at the earliestin april last year the ministry of finance had put on hold an increment in dearness allowance da till june 30 2021 due to the covid19 pandemicin july this year the government hiked da and dr to 28 per cent from july 1 2021 which benefited more than 48 lakh central government employees and 65 lakh pensionersthe rate of da from january 1 2020 to june 30 2021 was 17 per cent thus no da and dr arrears were released for central government employees and pensioners respectivelyin a letter to the prime minister the bms stated it is urged upon you to kindly intervene into the matter and direct the ministry of finance for early release of the freeze dadr with effect from january1 2020 to june 30 2021 an early and immediate action with a line of reply to this organization will be highly appreciatedthe bpm opined that during this period dadr freeze the retail inflation had shot up and the price of auto fuel edible oil and several pulses had soared to record levelthe very basis of payment of dadr is to compensate employees and pensioners for increase in the cost of living after the cost of living has gone up it is unfair to deny the compensation to employees and pensioners it submittedthe most of the pensioners being in their old age are required medical assistance and now the rate of every commodity has risen manyfolds due to the crisis of covid19 most of the pensioners are in hand to mouth financial condition it mentionedthe pensioners who are senior citizens are most vulnerable in the fight of covid19 and any stoppage of dr in their case at this juncture is not an appreciable decision on the part of the governmentno doubt the country has been passing through a financial crisis due to covid19 but the most of the pensioners have already contributed one day pension to the prime minister cares fund the body stated