Jharkhand Cabinet Meeting: Govt employees DA hiked by 50 %, range officers services extended

Ranchi, March 12: Just before Lok Sabha polls  Jharkhand government on Tuesday hiked employees’ dearness allowance (DA) to 50 per cent of basic pay from the existing 46 per cent, effective from January 1 this year, an official said.

The proposal regarding hike in DA to state government employees and dearness relief to pensioners was approved during a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Champai Soren.
“Dearness allowance and dearness relief for pensioners have been increased by 4 percentage points to 50 per cent,” Cabinet Secretary Vandana Dadel said.
The hike will benefit over 1.90 lakh employees and pensioners in the state, officials said.

The move comes close on the heels of the central government deciding to hike the DA by 4 percentage points to 50 per cent, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

In other major decision of the cabinet,

The Jharkhand government will extend by up to three years the services of Forest Range Officers and Assistant Conservators of Forest, who are due to retire, in a bid to deal with manpower crunch, an official said.

“Extension in service will be given for one to three years. This was done in view of the shortage of range officers and ACFs in the department,” Cabinet Secretary Vandana Dadel said.

Other proposals include sanction of around Rs 151 crore for construction of four degree colleges at Hatghamaria and Bandhgaon in West Singhbhum, Meral in Garhwa and Potka in East Singhbhum district.

It also approved the proposal of conducting half-yearly and annual evaluation of students in government schools from Classes 1-8.

Besides, the cabinet gave its nod for a stipend of Rs 2,500 per month to 17,380 panchayat assistants in 4,345 gram panchayats, the official added.

Oher proposals which received cabinet nod, BPL has been linked to the Chief Minister Teerth Darshan Scheme.

For this, 11 pilgrimage places in Jharkhand and 20 from outside the state have been added. Approval of Rs 105.29 crore has been given for the new Jharkhand Bhawan in New Delhi.

The amount for purchasing free textbooks for students studying in class 9 in government schools of Jharkhand has been increased.

Now children will be given Rs 902 instead of Rs 750 to buy books.

The transport allowance of state government employees and officers has been increased. Apart from this, dearness allowance has also been increased by 4 percent.