‘Festive fervour’: Assam joins states hiking dearness allowance ahead of Diwali
Dearness Allowance: UP, Punjab, and Haryana are among other states that announced a hike in DA.
Assam is the latest state that has hiked dearness allowance for its government employees as India remains gripped with festive spirit and gears up to celebrate Diwali. In a tweet, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the DA would be raised by 4 per cent. Effective from July 1 this year, it would be payable with this month’s salary, he added. "Hope this will add to the festive fervour. Also extending my good wishes for an auspicious and happy Deepawali! (sic)," Sarma's tweet read.
Recently, apart from Assam, the state governments in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, Odisha and Haryana have announced additional DA for its employees in the run up to Diwali. While a 6 per cent hike was announced by the AAP-led government in Punjab this week, effective from July 1, the Yogi Adityanath government in UP raised the DA to 38 per cent.
In Haryana, the Manohar Lal Khattar government has hiked it from 34 per cent to 38 per cent; Jharkhand and Rajasthan too saw a similar hike. In Chhattisgarh, it has been hiked to 33 per cent by 5 per cent.
Odisha had announced a 3 per cent hike for employees and pensioners soon after the central government’s announcement. In each states, lakhs of employees are expected to be benefitted.
Last month, the central government - in view of inflation - had announced a hike by four percentage points in DA to 38 per cent for more than 40 lakh central government employees along with a similar increase in the dearness relief (DR) for 6.86 million pensioners.
This was largely seen as a Diwali gift for the government staff.
