Chhattisgarh: Ahead of Assembly polls, CM Bhupesh Baghel pleases state employees with salary and DA hike

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel on Wednesday announced several sops for state government employees, including a hike in salary and Dearness Allowance (DA), a move that comes ahead of the assembly polls due this year-end. With this, the government has increased the DA for the second time this month - making it a collective hike of nine per cent. Baghel also announced that a housing scheme for rural areas of the state would be rolled out.

The chief minister made these announcements in the state legislative assembly while replying to a debate on the demand proposals for the first Supplementary Budget of the ongoing financial year 2023-24. He announced to raise the DA of around 5 lakh state government employees by four per cent, taking it to a total of 42 per cent.

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This is for the second time this month that the incumbent Congress government has increased the DA of employees.

On July 6, it had hiked the DA by five per cent. The latest hike will put an additional burden of Rs 800 crore per annum on the exchequer.

The salary of 37,000 contractual employees of various state government departments will be increased by 27 per cent, while the salary of daily wage employees will be hiked by Rs 4,000 per month. Before the 2018 assembly elections, the Congress had promised to regularise the services of contractual employees. However, that promise is yet to be fulfilled. Contractual employees in the state have been protesting in Raipur since July 10 demanding the government to fulfil the promise.

The salary of 1,650 visiting teachers will be increased by Rs 2,000 per month, while 6,000 patwaris (village level revenue officials) will get Rs 500 as monthly resource allowance, he said. All government employees will be given a house rent allowance (HRA) of 9 per cent for 'B' category cities and 6 per cent for 'C' category and other cities under the 7th pay scale, he said.

All police constables will get an annual kit allowance of Rs 8,000. Mitanin (health workers) trainer, block coordinator and help desk operator will get a daily incentive allowance of Rs 100 per day, he said.

The special allowance of panchayat secretaries have been increased by Rs 2500 per month for those who have completed service period up to 15 years while Rs 3000 for those who have completed service more than 15 years, he said. Besides, panchayat secretaries will also get the benefit of earned leave, ex-gratia amount up to Rs 10 lakh and reimbursement of medical expenses up to Rs 5 lakh, he said.

These announcements will add additional expenditure of Rs 1764 crore to state exchequer, an official said. Baghel said the state government will launch the Rural Housing Nyay Scheme for rural areas.

The needy families were facing difficulties in allotment of houses to them under PM Gramin Awas Yojna as the eligibility criteria was set on the basis of the survey list of the Socio-Economic Survey 2011. To overcome this, the Rural Housing Nyay Scheme will be started through resources of the state, he said.

A provision of Rs 100 crore has been made in the budget for the scheme, Baghel added. Under the Chief Minister Special Health Assistance Scheme, the maximum amount of assistance has been increased from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 25 lakh, he added. After discussion, the supplementary budget to the tune of Rs 6,031 crore for the ongoing fiscal was passed in the assembly.