DA Hike, Railway employee bonus, PMGKAY news: The Narendra Modi-led government on Wednesday took a slew of measures aimed at helping the government employees celebrate ongoing festival season with much joy and happiness. In Good news for the government employees, the Union Government has made several announcements, including much-awaited DA Hike and approval to bonus for the railway employees, amid the ongoing festival season, sources told Zee Business.  

DA Hike 

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As anticipated, the Narendra Modi-led central government has hiked the Dearness allowance (DA) of the Central Government Employees by 4 per cent, making it 38% from 34% earlier. Over 50 lakh central government employees and 62 lakh pensioners are expected to benefit from this DA hike. Earlier, the DA was hiked from 31% to 34% during a cabinet meeting in March. 

PM Gareeb Kalyan Yojana extension 

Apart from the DA hike, the Union Cabinet has also decided to extend benefits of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) by three months. The PM-GKAY, which is part of Atmanirbhar Bharat to supply free food grains to migrants and poor, will continue till December 2022. With the extension in the deadline, the scheme that started in March 2020 will cost the government an additional amount of Rs 40,000 crore. The scheme was scheduled to end on March 31, 2022. 

Bonus for railway employees 

Ahead of Dussehra, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) is also learnt to have approved 78-day production-linked bonus (PLB) for railway employees for 2021-22. Around 11 lakh non-gazetted railway employees will benefit from this move.  It will put an additional burden of Rs 2,000 crore on the Indian Railways.    

Railways' redevelopment programme

The Narendra Modi-led Union government has also given a go ahead to several projects of railway redevelopment programme. Union Cabinet has approved the Indian Railways’ proposal for the re-development of three major railway stations - New Delhi, Ahmedabad and CSMT, Mumbai. The project involves an investment of approximately Rs 10,000 crores. Under the railway redevelopment scheme, many railway stations will be redeveloped and upgraded. The scheme of station redevelopment is in synergy with Smart City Project launched by Govt. of India. The entire cost of station redevelopment is to be met by leveraging commercial development of spare railway land/airspace in and around the station.