Tamilnadu to announce D.A hike shortly

Update : D.A. Announced, Order Issued.
With chief minister J. Jayalalithaa giving her nod for increasing the dearness allowance (DA) to state government employees, following the Centre’s announcement hiking DA for its five million employees across the country, 13 lakh state government employees in Tamil Nadu are keenly awaiting the election commission of India’s (ECI’s) approval permitting TN to announce the hike.

The DA for government employees might increase from 51 per cent to 58 per cent, on the lines of Central government employees, which would help them take home an additional Rs 400 to Rs 2,500 per month.

“During the previous DMK regime, whenever the Central government announced DA hike, the state government also followed it, announcing the hike for its employees without any delay. Considering the increase in prices of essential commodities, the present government should also announce hike in DA at once,” demanded a senior staff with the health department.

Falling in line with the Centre’s decision, the state government is expected to announce the hike soon, said senior officials in the secretariat. Highly-placed sources in the finance department said they would announce the hike once the Centre issues the G.O. for its announcement.

“Though the Centre has announced 7 per cent hike in DA, it is yet to issue an order in this regard as the PM was abroad. We will announce the hike once the Centre issues the order,” said the official, adding that the SEC would not prevent the state from making the announcement, as there were precedents for governments announcing hike in DA during the election process.

However, sources in the SEC said that they had already given their nod to announce the hike in DA.

“We have given our nod and the government might be awaiting ECI’s approval as Tiruchy West Assembly bypoll process is underway,” they added.

Source : Deccan Herald.