Central government employees have been waiting for a long time for an increase in dearness allowance, but it has not been announced yet. At the same time, the West Bengal government has issued orders to increase dearness allowance for its employees.
While central employees are waiting for an increase in their dearness allowance, the government employees of West Bengal have got this happiness. The government has issued an order to increase the dearness allowance (DA) by 4%. After this increase of four percent, the dearness allowance of the state employees has increased from 14% to 18%. The new rates will be considered effective from April 1, 2025.
Strike announced in protest
This decision of the state government will benefit more than 10 lakh employees and pensioners. However, even after this increase, the difference in DA between the central and state government employees is 35%. The state government has issued a notification to implement the DA increase. On the other hand, the leftist organizations of government employees have expressed dissatisfaction over the huge difference in the DA of central and state employees. According to media reports, a three-hour strike has been called in government offices across the state from April 7 to 9 in protest against this.
These people will also get benefits
The notification also said that apart from the state government employees, the DA of government aided school teachers, non-teaching staff, government-owned, panchayat and municipal employees has also been increased. They will also get the increased dearness allowance from April 1. Leftist organizations say that Bengali employees are lagging behind in terms of DA, so the government should increase it in a proper proportion. We are not happy with the current increase.
Announcement possible today
On the other hand, it is believed that the announcement of increase in DA for central government employees can be made today. It is being told that everything has been finalized, there is just a delay in the announcement and it can be possible today. Under the 7th Pay Commission, DA / DR is increased twice a year. The first increase comes into effect from January 1 and the second from July 1. The first increase of this year i.e. 2025 is to be implemented from January 1, whose official announcement is still awaited.
How is the calculation done?
Dearness Allowance (DA) is given to the current government employees. Whereas, for pensioners it is called Dearness Relief (DR). Its calculation is done on the basis of All India Consumer Price Index (AICPI). The government determines the rates of DA and DR every six months keeping in mind the average data of AICPI.
In this way, employees get the gift of increased DA twice a year. There have been speculations for the last few days about how much DA i.e. dearness allowance will increase. The possibility of an increase of 2% is being said to be more. The government had increased DA by 3% in October last year, after which it increased from 50 percent to 53 percent.
