Festive boost for Odisha employees: State govt hikes DA by 11%
- The DA hike will be effective retrospectively from 1 July this year
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In a festive boost for Odisha employees and pensioners, the state government has announced a 11% hike in dearness allowance (DA). The said decision will be effective retrospectively from 1 July this year.
The latest hike takes the DA on salary of government employees to 28%. The move is expected to benefit around 4 lakh regular employees and 3.5 lakh pensioners, the Chief Minister's Office said.
The employees will get their increased salary from October and they will also get the three months' hiked DA in cash.
DA is a part of an employee salary that can be a fixed percentage of the basic salary. It is mainly aimed at mitigating the impact of inflation.
In another development, the state government, in its bid to extend more financial benefits to its employees in case of death while in service, has effected changes in the Group Insurance Scheme (GIS).
Under the revised plan, the employees in grade pay up to ₹4,800, who have been paying ₹7,500 for GIS, now have to pay ₹20,000. The family of such employees, who were getting ₹1.5 lakh in case of death, would now get ₹4 lakh.
Similarly, the GIS payment for the staffers getting ₹5,400 and above has been increased from ₹12,000 to ₹30,000. Their families would get ₹6 lakh under the revised scheme instead of ₹2.5 lakh previously.
The increased GIS amount will be deducted from the salaries of the employees in 10 instalments as before, the CMO release said.
This apart, the state government has also increased the funeral allowance from ₹5,000 to ₹10,000 for both the grade pay.
The GIS is a social security plan for government employees. In case of the death of an employee in service, his or her family gets financial benefits.