<span style="color: #222222;">The Government today clarified that the release of Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief arrears for Central government employees and pensioners for the period of the COVID pandemic is not considered feasible. <br />''<br />''It is because of the adverse impact of the pandemic in 2020 and the financing of welfare measures taken by the Centre that had a fiscal spillover beyond the Financial Year 2020-21. This was stated by the Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today. Several representations were made to the Government regarding the release of 18 months of DA and DR by the various Central government employees and pensioners associations. The Government had frozen three installments of DA and DR due from the 1st of January 2020 to the 1st of January 2021 in view of the economic disruptions caused by the pandemic.</span><br />