Bihar okays 1%DA hike for staff, 7th pay scale for pensioners, Rs 1,896 cr for power scheme

Those drawing salary and pension as per the recommendation of the 7th pay commission will be getting 5% DA with effect from July 1, 2017 and pensioners will gain by Rs 100 to Rs 1,000 as fresh increment.

On Diwali eve, the state cabinet, on Wednesday, approved 1% hike in dearness allowance (DA) for state government employees and pensioners with effect from July 1. They will be getting 5% DA, instead of 4% that was effective earlier, from January 1, 2017.

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Officials said, those who were drawing salary and pension as per the recommendation of the 7th pay commission would be getting 5% DA. Effectively, those drawing salary and pension as per the scale fixed by sixth, or the fifth pay commissions, will get 139% in place of 136% and 268% instead of 264% of their scales, respectively.

Pensioners have also been sanctioned Rs 1,000 as medical allowance against Rs 200 earlier and pensioners will benefit by Rs 100 to Rs 1000 as fresh increment because of Wednesday’s cabinet decision, depending on their pay scales at the time of retirement.

Briefing the media after the cabinet meeting. chaired by chief minister Nitish Kumar, principal secretary of cabinet secretariat department, Brajesh Mehrotra, said the cabinet also formally gave its nod for implementation of revised scale for pensioners as per the seventh pay commission.

Giving a boost to its ‘power to all’ scheme under the CM’s ‘seven resolves’ for governance, the cabinet also okayed Rs 1,896 crore under the CM’s power connection scheme. The fund will be spent on installation of metres, providing electricity to homes not covered, extending reach of three-phase supply of 11KV transmission wires and installation of neutral wire, wherever required.

In a bid to boost organised marketing of vegetables, the cabinet okayed operations of a vegetable federation on a three tier model with processing and marketing hubs at five places, namely, Patna, Nalanda, Begusarai, Vaishali and Samastipur.

Vegetables would be collected, graded and processed first by the block level committees and then at regional level sanghs before adding value to them at the five selected hubs.