Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Tuesday announced a 12 per cent raise in Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) for state government employees and pensioners with effect from December 1.

The state government employees’ DA has now gone up to 20 per cent from 8 per cent.

The Tripura Chief Minister  said the state government has revised the pay scales from January 2018 based on the 7 CPC Pay matrix.

Taking to Twitter he wrote, “Today announced 12% hike in DA/DR for the employees & pensioners. Besides, also declared over 50% hike in remuneration of DRWs MRWs PTWs and Contingent workers. The decisions will benefit around 1,94,000 persons/ families & will have positive impact on the overall development.”

Today announced 12% hike in DA/DR for the employees & pensioners. Besides, also declared over 50% hike in remuneration of DRWs MRWs PTWs and Contingent workers.

The decisions will benefit around 1,94,000 persons/ families & will have positive impact on the overall development. pic.twitter.com/NwMIJdpMYp

— Prof.(Dr.) Manik Saha(Modi Ka Parivar) (@DrManikSaha2) December 27, 2022

While addressing the media , Manik Saha said, “A total of 1,04,600 regular employees and 80,800 pensioners will benefit from the decision. Besides, … and part-time employees will receive the benefit as their remunerations have been almost doubled.”

“Despite the shortage of resources, the state government has considered to release further instalments of DA/DR at the rate of 12% with immediate effect from December 2022. After the release of this 12% instalment of DA/DR, the total release of DA/DR December 2022 stands at 20%,” Saha told reporters in Agartala.

“In addition, the State Government has taken a major decision, to substantially increase the compensation for the hard work done by the DRWS/ MRWS PTWs/ Contingent etc. workers. There is over 50% increase in their remuneration or wages from the existing rate,” he said.

Finance Minister Jishnu Dev Varma said that there has been criticism of the government for not increasing DA for government employees and social pensions to the beneficiaries.

“The government aims at maximum benefit to the maximum people. We want to set a benchmark for state government employees by taking the courageous step”, he said.

The Tripura Legislative Assembly election is expected to be held in Tripura by February- March 2023.