Chhattisgarh govt announces 6% DA hike for govt employees

Raipur, Aug 16: The Chhattisgarh government on Tuesday announced a 6 per cent hike in the dearness allowance (DA) of state government employees, raising it to 28 per cent. The hike will benefit at least 3.8 lakh state government employees.

The order posted by the Chief Minister Office (CMO) on its official Twitter handle stated that the state government employees were getting 22 per cent DA under the 7th Pay Commission and 174 per cent under the 6th Pay Commission since May this year.

After the revision, 6 per cent and 15 per cent hikes have been effected under the 7th and 6th Pay Commissions respectively, the order stated.

The employees will get 28 per cent and 189 per cent DA from August 1 this year, it said.

The hike will put an additional burden of Rs 2,160 crore per annum on the exchequer, the official said.

A federation of state government officers and employees had staged a five-day strike last month over their various demands, including a hike in the DA and house rent allowance (HRA).

The federation had announced to again go on strike from August 22 to raise their demands.

On August 13, a delegation of the Chhattisgarh Karamchari Adhikari Mahasangh (CAKM) had met Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, who had given his consent to hike the DA by 6 per cent, officials said.

The chief minister had also assured that he would consider the demand of increasing the HRA on the basis of the 7th Pay Commission scale, they said.

Unsatisfied with the 6 per cent hike, the CAKM's regional convenor Kamal Verma said the state employees had sought 34 per cent DA and HRA as per the 7th Pay Commission scale, but both these demands have not been fulfilled.

Even the 6 per cent hike has been made effective from August, when it should have been given from July 2020, he said.

"As per our earlier announcement, we will go on indefinite strike from August 22," Verma said.