By IANS,
Bhubaneswar : Orissa Sunday decided to raise the pay of the state government’s half a million employees by 36 percent, official sources said.
The hike, which will be effective from January 2006, will cost the state government an additional Rs.2,100 crore (Rs 2.1 billion) annually. While 40 per cent of the arrears will be paid by this month-end, the remaining sum will be paid early next year, the sources said.
The government employees who will benefit from the hike will include regular employees, grants in aid employees and pensioners. The highest hike will be around Rs.9,000 and the lowest around Rs.4,000, according to a senior state official
The Orissa government had constituted a fitment committee, headed by the state development commissioner R.N. Bohidar, to study the Sixth Pay Commission’s recommendations and also try to figure out the likely impact on the state’s finances if the recommendations were implemented.
A meeting of the state cabinet, presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Sunday, approved the fitment committee report’s, which was submitted recently, and decided to give the hike as per the recommendations.