Centre announces 5% DA hike for govt employees

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (October 9) announced a 5% hike in dearness allowance of central government employees, with Union minister Prakash Javadekar calling it a “Diwali gift”. This will benefit about 49.93 lakh Central government employees and 65.26 lakh pensioners.

The combined impact on the hike in dearness allowance and dearness relief to pensioners which will be given with effect from July 1, 2019, will cost the exchequer Rs 15909.35 crore per annum and Rs 10606.20 crore in the financial year 2019-20.

Dear allowance and dearness relief are paid to Central government employees and pensioners to adjust the cost of living and to protect their basic pay, a pension from erosion in the real value. Dear allowance and dearness relief is revised twice a year from 1st January and 1st July.

Cash doles for 5,300 displaced J&K families

The Cabinet also approved one-time financial assistance of Rs 5.5 lakhs under the existing scheme, and in turn, be able to get some sustained income which the existing scheme is aimed at.

Cabinet approved the inclusion of 5,300 displaced families of Jammu & Kashmir who initially opted to move out but later returned and settled J&K. Such families will be eligible to get a one-time financial assistance of Rs 5.5 lakhs. It the wake of the 1947 aggression in J&K, 31,619 families migrated from Pakistan Occupied Areas (PoK) to the state of J&K.

Of these, 26,319 families settled in J&K and 5,300 families initially opted to move out of the state to other parts of the country. Further during the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971 10,065 more families were displaced from the Chhamb Niabat area. Of these 3,500 families were displaced during the 1965 war and 6565 families were displaced during the 1971 war.