Punjab Govt staff get 4% DA hike, to cost state Rs 144 crore each month

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 18

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today announced a 4 per cent dearness allowance (DA) hike to state government employees, calling it a goodwill gesture and bonanza for them.

CM Mann, who met representatives of various employee unions today where the decision was taken, said it would benefit lakhs of employees and his government would leave no stone unturned to ensure their welfare.

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The ministerial employees had been on a strike for over a month and, following the government assurance, they called off their strike. As a result of the strike, other than salaries and pensions to retired employees, all other government payments, including social security pensions, have not been disbursed.

With the decision to give an additional 4 per cent DA, the already fiscally-stressed government will have to shell out Rs 144 crore additional funds every month towards the salaries and wages of its employees. The state already spends Rs 4,000 crore each month towards paying the salaries, wages and pensions to its employees.

The government has, however, failed to either announce or assure the employees regarding the remaining 8 per cent DA instalment due to them. Three instalments of DA were pending, of which only one (due since July 2023) has been announced.

For the earlier two instalments - due since January 2023 and previously July 2022- the government has maintained a silence. “That is because the fiscal liability is too high and the state government does not have the fiscal space for it. As it is, state government employees are the highest paid in the country,” said a top functionary.

Sukhchain Khera, convener of the Sanjha Mullazam Manch - an umbrella body of all employee associations - thanking the CM for release of one due instalment of DA, said he would convene a meeting of their members to discuss on the next course of action to get the remaining two instalments of DA released.

“The DA given to central government employees is 46 per cent, while Punjab government employees will now get a DA of 38 per cent,” he said, demanding that their DA should be on a par with the central employees.

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