Centre hikes Dearness Allowance for employees by 4 per cent ahead of festive season

New Delhi: Ahead of festive season, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday decided to increase the Dearness Allowance (DA) by 4 per cent for central government employees and pensioners, effective 1 July, 2022."After the latest revision, central government employees and pensioners will get a dearness allowance of 38 per cent of the basic pay/pension to compensate for increasing prices," Union Minister Anurag Thakur said while announcing the decisions of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).He added that the government has allocated Rs 12, 852 crore.Dearness Allowance was last hiked in March with effect from 1 January, 2022 in keeping with the 7th pay commission.With this hike, Dearness Allowance went up 3 per cent over the previous 31 per cent in March. This rise in dearness allowance was based on the recommendations of the seventh Central Pay Commission.Thakur said that the Cabinet has approved the Indian Railways’ proposal for the re-development of three major railway stations - New Delhi, Ahmedabad and CSMT, Mumbai."The project involves an investment of approximately Rs 10,000 crores," he added.He said that the Cabinet also decided to extend PMGKAY (free ration) scheme for the next three months."The scheme to provide 5 kg of wheat and rice free of cost to 80 crore poor every month, which was ending on Friday, will now run through 31 December, 2022," said Thakur.With the additional expenditure of about Rs 44,762 crore for the latest extension, the overall expenditure of the PMGKAY will be about Rs 3.91 lakh crore for all the phases, he said.The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) was started in April 2020 to help the poor whose livelihoods were shuttered by a nationwide lockdown aimed at containing the spread of the Coronavirus.With inputs from agenciesRead all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.