Gandhinagar:

The Gujarat government has given a festival gift of sorts to over 8.20 lakh employees and pensioners of the state by taking a decision to increase their dearness allowance by 2% with retrospective effect of January 1, 2018.

DyCM cum Finance Minister Nitin Patel informed this before leaving for 8 days Japan visit today.

He said that the decision has put an additional burden of Rs 680 crores per annum on the state exchequer.
‘Around 4 lakh employees of state and Panchayat department and 4.25 lakh pensioners will benefit from it,’ he said.
In the wake of the festive season the arrears part of the DA since January would be paid in cash in September to them.

The decision has come close on heels of the central government’s similar decision benefiting over 48 lakh employees and more than 62 lakh pensioners.

DeshGujarat