New Delhi: IANS. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday announced a 5 percent increase in Dearness Allowance (DA) for government employees. According to a statement released from the Chief Minister’s Office, the DA hike will be implemented from January 1, 2020. This decision of the government will benefit about 3.5 lakh government employees of the state.

Apart from this, the state government has also asked to pay the pending 10 percent dues from January 1, 2016 to August 31, 2017. Employees can now get 10 per cent of their outstanding salary arising after review of salary under Odisha Revised Pay Scale (ORSP) -2017 during the financial year 2019-20. Earlier, the government disbursed 40% of the total outstanding for the period from January 1, 2016 to August 31, 2017 during the financial year 2017-18.

Significantly, the central government employees had high expectations from the budget presented in the Parliament on 1 February 2020, but their hopes have been lost. There was an expectation from the budget that the government could increase the Dearness Allowance (DA) of Central employees after 28 April 2020 but it did not happen. The DA was implemented by the central government nearly 1 year after the Seventh Pay Commission came into force. 

Recently, the Gujarat government announced a 5 percent DA for its employees. About 9.61 lakh Gujarat State Government employees will benefit from this decision of Gujarat Government.