Responding the government employees' agitation, the Tripura government Tuesday announced five percent increase in the dearness allowance (DA) for its employees and pensioners.
"In spite of our severe financial crisis, the government has released five more percent DA for the employees and pensioners," Finance Minister Badal Chowdhury told reporters Tuesday.
The move will entail an annual additional expenditure of over Rs.157 crore.
"Over 210,700 government employees and pensioners would get the new instalments of DA from this month," the minister said after a cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Manik Sarkar.
With the raise, the gap in DA payment between state and central government employees has been reduced from 38 to 33 percent.
The DA of state government employees and pensioners rose to 47 percent while the central government employees are getting the allowance at 80 percent.
State government employees, cutting across political affiliations, have been demanding DA and salaries at per with the central government employees.