Ahead of the crucial 2022 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced a series of sops in the Vidhan Sabha on Thursday.
He announced a hike in dearness allowance for 16 lakh state employees and 12 lakh pensioners from 17 per cent to 28 per cent, hike in honorarium for Anganwadi workers, Pradesh Raksha Dal jawans, rojgar sevaks and hike in Suraksha Nidhi for the lawyers from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.
Yogi Adityanath also announced the setting up of a special Nidhi (fund) of Rs 3,000 crore for assisting the youth participating in competitive examinations, distribution of one crore smartphones and tablets to diploma and other degree holders.
The chief minister said the youth would be provided financial assistance from the Nidhi for participating in three competitive examinations. A provision of Rs 3,000 crore has been made for this in the supplementary grants for the current fiscal 2021-22 passed by the state assembly on Thursday.
Yogi Adityanath said the government would also bear the expenditure for providing digital access to the youth who were beneficiaries of the scheme. He said the government had also roped in corporate houses who would contribute from their corporate social responsibility (CSR) fund to this Nidhi and also the universities and other institutions.
Targeting the opposition, the chief minister said “during the Samajwadi Party rule the youth from UP were forced to hide their native state and they were slapped with fake criminal cases but now the state is riot-free and youth are progressing”.
The state government had withheld DA revision in 2020 due to financial constraints arising out of COVID-19 curbs. The Yogi government had said there would not be any DA hike from April 2020 to July 1, 2021.
The new DA rates will now be applicable from July 1, 2021.
"The state government has increased the dearness allowance of government employees to 28 per cent (as per the Centre's mandate) with the effect from July 2021. The government will enhance honorarium to Anganwadi workers/Anganwadi helpers (AWWs/AWHs)," Yogi Adityanath said.
The current DA hike order is going to benefit state government employees, pensioners, staff of aided educational institutes and technical education institutes, and employees of urban local bodies.
“The Anganwadi workers and ASHA Bahus are the Corona Warriors who played a stellar role as members of the vigilance committee in identifying the COVID-19 patients and distributing medicines and relief material to the people in rural areas,” the chief minister said.
The DA hike by the UP government comes more than a month after the Central government increased the dearness allowance (DA) by 11 per cent from 17 per cent to 28 per cent for its employees. The hike was announced more than a year after the government decided to put revisions in DA on hold. The three installments of DA for the Central government employees and DR for pensioners due on January 1, 2020, July 1, 2020, and January 1, 2021, were put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic.