Bihar's staff, pensioners' dearness allowance up 10%
In what appeared to be a festival gift to Bihar Govt. employees and pensioners, the state cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal to increase their dearness allowance (DA) by 10%, thereby making it on a par with central government employees - with effect from July this year.
The state employees will thus get 90% DA which will calculate to an additional financial burden of Rs 850 crore annually.
State cabinet secretary Brajesh Mehrotra told reporters soon after the two-hour cabinet meeting that the cabinet also approved the revised proposal of the building construction department to build an international convention centre and civilization gate near the Gandhi Maidan at an estimated cost of Rs 490 crore. The convention centre, Gyan Bhavan, will have a seating capacity of 5,000 people. The construction work will start next month after the demolition of some existing bungalows of district judge and civil surgeon, he said and added the estimated cost of the project was earlier Rs 274.2 crore.
The cabinet also approved the public holiday list of Bihar government and its affiliated offices for the year 2014. It OK'd 11 holidays in government offices (barring three holidays on Sundays) under its executive orders, including the birth anniversary of Kabir. It also approved 17 holidays under the NI Act (barring two holidays on Sundays).
