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Amid the prevailing COVID situation that brought most of the activities to a standstill, the central government last month increased the Dearness Allowance (DA) of its employees. Dearness Allowance covers a substantial portion of the salary of government employees.

The central government normally hikes DA twice a year but last year due to the COVID situation it stalled the increment in the Dearness Allowance of government employees.

Last month, the DA and DR of these employees were increased from 17 percent to 28 percent effect from July 1. Pensioners also received the benefits of the increment. The 11 percent increase in Dearness Allowance was for the period of January 2020 to January 2021 and the government has not yet announced DA hike for the January-June 2021 period.

Under the 7th Pay Commission, normally the allowance is hiked in January and July.

Also Read: 7th Pay Commission: Assam govt to give DA hike up to 28%; here’re updates on central govt employees’ salary increase and more

Therefore, if the government decides to increase the DA for the period of January-June 2021 then nearly 50 lakh employees may receive the benefit again this year. However, there is no announcement regarding this from the government’s side. If the government raise it again by 3 percent then the central government employees’ DA will stand at 31 percent.

Besides that, various state governments have also increase Dearness allowance of their employees.

The Assam government on Thursday (Aug 12) decided to increase the Dearness Allowance of its employees from the existing 17 percent to 28 percent.

Other states that hiked DA include Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Jammu and Kashmir. Most of these governments have increased DA by 11 percent to 28 percent. Some of them have also increased HRA benefits.

In another development, Delhi HC on Thursday refused to hear a PIL seeking direction to the Centre to extend the same pension scheme to armed forces under the Home Ministry as is applicable to the forces under the Defence Ministry. The HC bench said that several such petitions are already pending adjudication.

Bank employees' salaries will also be increased this month, as the Dearness Allowance (DA) of these employees has been hiked by 2.1 percent to 27.79 percent.

First Published:Aug 13, 2021 4:27 PM IST