Govt. announces six percent DA hike for govt employees, pensioners

Govt. announces six percent DA hike for govt employees, pensioners
Mar 23, 4:53 pm
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New Delhi, Mar.23 (ANI): The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared an additional six percent Dearness Allowance (DA) for serving government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) for pensioners from January 1 this year.

Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad briefing the media said the decision will benefit lakhs of serving employees and pensioners.

With this move, the DA will go up to 125 percent from existing 119 percent. The new rate of DA will be implemented from January 1, 2016.

Earlier in September 2015, the DA was increased to 119 percent from 113 percent which was effective from July 1, 2015.

The Cabinet has also approved implementation of rural housing scheme of ‘Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana’ under which one crore houses would be built in the next three years.

It will cost Rs 81,975 crore and Rs 1.2 lakh of financial assistance will be provided per unit in plain areas and Rs 1.3 lakh in hilly and difficult areas.

The government has also given its nod to Ashgabat Agreement to build an international transport and transit corridor between Central Asia and Persian Gulf.

It has also approved procurement of launch services and realization of ground segment for GSAT-11. It will cost Rs. 1,117 crore, and enable early deployment of satellite to augment Ku-band capacity for various services like VSATS, and broadband.

Meanwhile, Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, CCEA has cleared doubling of Kiul-Gaya Railway line of 124 kilometres costing 1354.22 crore rupees. The project will be completed by 2019-2020.

The CCEA has also approved doubling of the Ranchi (Hatia) Railway line of 158.5 kilometres which would be completed within next six years. The project will cost Rs. 1921.94 crores. (ANI)