Dehradun: In a major piece of good news for the Uttarakhand government employees, the state Cabinet has decided to increase the Dearness Allowance (DA) to 11%, reported news agency ANI. This will cost the state Rs 1,800 crore annually, Cabinet Minister Subodh Uniyal told the mediapersons. But that’s not it. The Cabinet on Friday also gave its approval to payment of revised dearness allowance to them, reported news agency PTI. The state government employees and pensioners will get the revised DA with retrospective effect from July 1, Uniyal added. The Cabinet gave the nod at a meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.
Dhami had lifted the freeze on payment of DA to the state government employees on August 25 and increased it from 17 to 28 per cent. The state government employees will get the revised DA with arrears. As many as 1,60,000 government employees and 1,50,000 pensioners will benefit from the decision.
In April last year, the Union Ministry of Finance had put on hold an increment in DA till June 30, 2021, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Other important decisions taken by Uttarakhand Cabinet on Friday:
- The Cabinet also decided to substantially lower VAT charges on aviation turbine fuel from 20 per cent to 2 per cent.
- Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia had recently suggested reducing VAT charges on ATF, saying it will help boost air connectivity and revenue.
- It also decided to make head constables out of constables entirely through promotions rather than through an examination.
- The Cabinet also decided to allow contractual teachers in seven engineering institutes of the state to work from October 2021 to March 31, 2022.
- The state government will meet expenses worth Rs 3.83 crore to be incurred on payment of their remuneration, Uniyal said.
(Based on PTI inputs)
