Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Tuesday announced 31 per cent DA to all the employees of the State at par with the Central Government employees. He said that this would provide financial benefits of Rs 500 crore to the employees of the State Government. The Chief Minister made this announcement while addressing the state level function of 52nd Statehood Day in Solan. He said that the state has recently implemented new pay scales for employees of the State Government ensuring benefits of about Rs 6000 crore to about 2.25 lakh employees. He said that it was felt that few disparities existed in the new pay scales of few categories. Now, the employees would be given a third option besides two options already given to them, he added.
Thakur also announced that pensioners of the State Government would also be given pension as per the new pay scales of Punjab government. This would benefit about 1.75 lakh pensioners by providing financial benefits of about Rs 2000 crore.
He further announced an increase in annual income for availing the benefits of various welfare schemes and pensions for the weaker sections of the society from existing Rs 35,000 to Rs 50,000. The benefits of higher scales would be provided immediately to all those constables who were eligible for higher scales, he said.
The Chief Minister announced that the domestic consumers of the state whose electricity consumption is up to 60 units per month would not be charged any fee per electricity unit. They would incur zero cost per unit of electricity consumed. With this decision, domestic consumers whose electricity consumption is up to 125 units, would be charged only one rupee per unit cost. Over 11 lakh domestic consumers would be benefitted from this decision and the State government would incur an additional expenditure of Rs 60 crore on providing this relief.