Bhubaneswar: Just ahead of the Lok Sabha and Bidhan Sabha twin polls, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today announced a 4% increase in Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (TI) for Government employees and pensioners.
The State Government announced release of 4 percent additional dose of DA and TI in favour of State Government Employees and Pensioners respectively to enhance the rate from 46% to 50%. The enhanced DA and TI will be paid retrospectively from January 2024.
More than 4.5 lakh State Government employees and 3.5 lakh pensioners will be benefited from the move.
The Chief Minister has also announced enhancement in daily wages of unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled workers.
The minimum daily wages for unskilled and semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled workers has been increased to Rs 450, Rs 500, Rs 550 and Rs 600, respectively. Lakhs of workers engaged in government and private sectors will benefit from the decision.
The present daily wage of the unskilled and semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled workers is—Rs 352, Rs 392, Rs 442 and Rs 502.
In another event, the Chief Minister has inaugurated a modern educational complex at Badapada in ‘swabhiman’ area of Malkangiri district. The complex, built over an area of seven acre at a cost of around Rs 19 crore.
More than 1,000 students from Class 1 to 12 will be imparted education at the complex which has state-of-the-art facilities. The aim is to prepare the students for their future by providing them with all modern facilities.
Apart from smart classrooms, the complex is armed with a special e-library with 3000 books, tribal corner, activity room, NCC room, computer lab, ICT Smart Learning Centre, science lab and a hostel to accommodate 200 boys. There is a separate girls’ hostel to accommodate 500 students.
Speaking on this occasion, the Chief Minister said that Malkangiri district occupies a special place in his heart and he always loves to launch new projects in the district. All major welfare programmes including the cheap rice scheme, Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) and LAccMI bus were first launched in the district, he said.