The Chhattisgarh government on Thursday hiked the dearness allowance (DA) for its employees by 5 percent, taking it to 38 per cent in total.
The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting held here under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.However, the employees’ associations have rejected the hike terming it meager and said they are adamant and will go on strike on Friday to press their demand.Meanwhile, briefing newspersons, Forest Minister Mohammad Akbar said it was also decided to reduce the minimum service duration for eligibility of full pension from 33 to 30 years and the minimum service duration for voluntary retirement from 20 to 17 years.
pproximately, 3.80 lakh state government employees will benefit from the increased DA, he said. After the notification is issued, it will be known from when the employees will get the hiked DA, he said.Baghel took to Twitter to announce the hike. “The cabinet meeting has decided to increase the DA by 5 per cent for the state government employees.” It will cost Rs 1,000 crore additional burden to the state exchequer, Baghel said.Under the 7th Pay Commission, state government employees were getting 22 percent DA, which was hiked by 6 percent and 5 percent earlier to make it 33 percent. Now, the employees will be entitled to get 33 percent. It is still 4 percent less than the DA drawn by Central government employees.