Chhattisgarh DA Hike News: CM Bhupesh Baghel announces bonanza of Dearness Allowance hike, salary increment - check details

Chhattisgarh Dearness Allowance, Salary Hike News: Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday announced a bonanza of perks like raise in salary and Dearness Allowance (DA) hike for state government employees, ahead of the upcoming state assembly elections. Notably, this is the second DA hike announced by the Chhattisgarh government this month, taking the total announced DA hike to 9 per cent. Read on to check all the benefits announced for teachers, patwaris, police constables, panchayat workers and daily wage employees — 

Chhattisgarh Dearness Allowance, Salary Hike News: DA Hike details

Chhattisgarh chief minister announced a 4 per cent Dearness Allowance (DA) hike for approximately 5 lakh state government employees, taking the prevalent DA rate to 42%. 

This is the second DA hike by the current Congress government — it had announced a dearness relief hike of 5 per cent on July 6. 

The salaries of 37,000 contractual employees from various state government ministries would be boosted by 27%, while daily wage employees' salaries will be increased by Rs 4,000 per month. 

Chhattisgarh Dearness Allowance News: Salary Hike Announcements, Order

• According to the chief minister, the monthly salary of 1,650 visiting teachers will be boosted by Rs 2,000.
   
• While 6,000 patwaris (village level revenue officials) will receive Rs 500 as a monthly resource allowance. 
   
• All police constables will get an annual kit allowance of Rs 8,000.
   
• Mitanin (health workers) trainer, block coordinator and help desk operator will get a daily incentive allowance of Rs 100 per day. 
   
• The special allowance of panchayat secretaries have been increased by Rs 2500 per month for those who have completed service period up to 15 years.
   
• Special allowance of panchayat secretaries who have completed service more than 15 years raised by Rs 3000.
   
• Panchayat secretaries will also get the benefit of earned leave, ex-gratia amount up to Rs 10 lakh and reimbursement of medical expenses up to Rs 5 lakh. 

Chhattisgarh Dearness Allowance News: House Rent Allowance (HRA)

Under the 7th pay scale, all government employees will receive a house rent allowance (HRA) of 9% for cities in the 'B' category and 6% for cities in the 'C' category and other cities, he said. 

The chief minister made the announcement while responding to a debate on demand recommendations for the first Supplementary Budget of the current fiscal year 2023-24 in the state legislative assembly. 

The current DA hike and salary increment will add Rs 800 crore to the state exchequer's annual burden.

Apart from the DA hike, CM Baghel also announced that a housing project will come up in state's rural districts.

The Congress had promised to regularise the services of contractual employees prior to the 2018 assembly elections. That promise, however, is yet to be fulfilled.

Since July 10, contract employees in the state have been protesting in Raipur, asking that the government keep its pledge.