Holi Bonanza For Maharashtra Employees! Fadnavis Govt Hikes Dearness Allowance By 12%

Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government has increased the dearness allowance of state government employees by 12 percent.

Devendra Fadnavis-led Maharashtra government has increased the dearness allowance of state government employees by 3 percent.

Source : PTI

The Maharashtra government, led by Devendra Fadnavis, issued an order announcing a hike in the dearness allowance for its employees by 12 per cent, effective from July 1, 2024. The DA hike is expected to benefit approximately 17 lakh state government employees, an oficial from the state finance department said.  

The dearness allowance has been hiked by 12 percent under the unrevised pay scale of the 5th Pay Commission. According to the Government Resolution (GR), DA has been revised from 443 per cent to 455 per cent. The decision will also result in employees receiving arrears of their salary from July 2024 to January 31, 2025, including the increase. It will be paid in cash along with the salary of February, 2025. 

The decision comes as the state government employee organisations had been demanding an increase in DA for the past few days. They had also threatened to stage a protest on the March 6 budget session if the demands were not met.  

The government employees had also sought a meeting with state finance minister Ajit Pawar and CM Devendra Fadnavis to arrive at a solution for their demands. A meeting was held at Nashik, wherein office-bearers from all districts participated to discuss the issue of implementation of the DA, payout of arrears, and revised pension scheme.

The government employees had reportedly contended that the crores worth freebies distributed by the Mahayuti government under Eknath Shinde was the reason that they were not getting their dues.

The existing procedures and provisions regarding DA disbursement will continue to apply in the future, the GR (Government Resolution) stated.

The expenditure on the revised DA will be met from the budget allocated under the resppective salary and allowance heads for government employees, the order said. It also said the grant-in-aid institutions and zilla parishad employees, the expenditure will be booked under the sub-heads specified for their financial assistance.