Patna: The Bihar Cabinet on Tuesday hiked the dearness allowance of state government employees and pensioners by three per cent. Following the revision, the DA rate is now 12 per cent with effect from January 1, 2019, Cabinet Secretariat Department's Principal Secretary, Sanjay Kumar, said.
Kumar said the enhancement in the allowance would have an additional annual burden of Rs 1,100.94 crore on the state exchequer.

The cabinet also gave its nod for the Home Department's proposal to install CCTVs in Patna district, under the 'Safe City Surveillance' project. The Rs 110-crore project is aimed to check and contain crimes, including eve-teasing and harassment of women at public places, Kumar said. The creation of posts -- both teaching and non-teaching -- in newly-created government engineering and polytechnic colleges also got a go-ahead from the cabinet.

Earlier, it was the Jammu and Kashmir administration who on last Thursday had sanctioned an increase of three per cent in dearness allowance (DA) payable on basic pay to state government employees and pensioners with effect from January 1. The decision, which will benefit about 4.50 lakh state government employees and 1.60 lakh pensioners, was taken at the State Administrative Council (SAC) meeting here under the chairmanship of Governor Satya Pal Malik, an official spokesperson said.