By IANS,
Agartala : Barely two months ahead of assembly polls in the country’s lone Left-ruled state, the Tripura government Tuesday decided to increase the emoluments of its 209,000 employees and pension holders, officials said here.
“The council of ministers chaired by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar decided to follow the basic pay fixation formula of the central government’s sixth pay commission,” a state government official told IANS.
According to the official, the additional expenditure for the move will be around Rs.90 crore in the remaining months of the current financial year. An additional Rs.251 crore would be annual additional expenditure in the next financial year (2013-14).
The decision would be effective this month.
According to a political observer, the Left Front government took this decision to defuse the resentment of the state government employees and pension holders before the assembly polls scheduled to be held in February next year.
“Despite the state government’s severe financial crisis, the government last month announced seven percent dearness allowance (DA) hike for employees and pensioners,” the official added.
The Tripura government recently raised the upper age limit of retirement for employees from 58 to 60 years.