Good news for over six lakh State government employees. The Executive Committee headed by Governor Rameshwar Thakur on Thursday gave its approval to implement the second report of the Fifth Pay Commission from April 1, 2008, with some minor modifications. According to sources, the staff would get the arrears from April, 2006 to April 1, 2007.

Announcing this to reporters, Krishna Kumar, one of the Governor’s advisors, said the decision will burden the State exchequer by Rs 150 crore per annum. He, however, did not elaborate as to what modifications have been made in the report.

The report has basically recommended hike in various allowances like travelling, special pays like washing allowances and several others to the employees depending on their grade. The State government employees are eagerly awaiting for an announcement from the Government to hike HRA and DA after Bangalore being upgraded as A-1 grade city, for which no decision has been taken.

According to official sources, implementation of the second report will mainly benefit primary school teachers as they get arrears pending from April 1, 2006. The pay for Government Homeopathic doctors will also go up, as the report has recommended an intermediate scale. Sources said the second pay commission report includes all miscellaneous recommendations that were not in the first report. “It is implementation of 1st report that all employees are waiting for,” sources added. The committee decided to re-introduce Goa-Freedom Fighters’ Pension Scheme. It will benefit around 1,300 freedom fighters and will burden the State exchequer by Rs 4 crore, Krishna Kumar said.

The committee also decided to set up a separate Engineering division under Rural Development and Panchayat Raj, he added.