By IANS,
Agartala : Barely months ahead of the crucial assembly polls in the lone Left-ruled state, the Tripura government Tuesday announced seven percent increased dearness allowance (DA) for its 209,000 employees and pension holders.
“Despite our severe financial crisis, the government has released seven more percent DA for the employees and pensioners,” Finance Minister Badal Chowdhury told reporters.
The annual additional expenditure for the move will be Rs.217 crore.
“Over 209,000 government employees and pensioners would get the new instalments of DA from next month,” the minister said after a cabinet meeting, which Chief Minister Manik Sarkar chaired.
The Tripura government has recently raised the upper age limit of retirement for the government employees from 58 to 60 years.
With the new instalment of DA, the gap in DA payment between state and central employees has been reduced from current 37 to 30 percentage.
The DA of state government employees and pensioners rose to 42 percent while the central government employees are getting the allowance at 72 percent.