Odisha hikes DA by 11%; 400,000 employees, 350,000 pensioners to benefit

As a Durga Puja gift, the Odisha government on Friday announced an 11 per cent hike in dearness allowance (DA) for its employees and pensioners effective from July 1 this year, officials said.

The enhanced DA will benefit around 4 lakh regular employees and 3.5 lakh pensioners, a release issued by the Chief Minister's Office said, adding that the DA on the salary of the government staffers has now gone up to 28 per cent from 17 per cent.

The employees will get their increased salary from October and they will also get the three months' hiked DA in cash.

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 Rs 4,800, who have been paying Rs 7,500 for GIS, now have to pay Rs 20,000. The family of such employees, who were getting Rs 1.5 lakh in case of death, would now get Rs 4 lakh.

Similarly, the GIS payment for the staffers getting Rs 5,400 and above has been increased from Rs 12,000 to Rs 30,000. Their families would get Rs 6 lakh under the revised scheme instead of Rs 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 Rs 5,000 to Rs 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.