Central Govt Increases Dearness Allowance
As an early Diwali present, the Central Government has increased the Dearness Allowance to 17% for all Central Government employees.
Dearness Allowance one parts of the salary paid to government employees and pensioners. The salary of an employee can not be the same every year and there has to be some increase in the salary so that they manage with the rise in prices. The government tries to manage the inflation but every year the cost of living keeps increasing. This is why it is important for the government to make sure their employees can manage all their expenses with their salary. The DA helps to manage such expenses. It is calculated differently for employees working in the urban, semi-urban and rural areas.
Now the Central Government announced that the DA for central government employees will increase by 5%. Which means that now it is 17%. Union Minister Prakash Javadekar made the announcement at a Cabinet meeting and said that this government will have to spend Rs. 16,000 crore.The DA will be calculated from July 2019. 50 lakh government employees and nearly 62 lakh pensioners will benefit from this. Javadekar said, “This will bring cheer to the working class and is a Diwali gift.”
The government has also decided to double the salary of Asha workers from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000.
An Asha worker is a person who is responsible for immunization of children and pregnant women. They encourage women to give birth in hospitals, bring children to immunization clinics, encouraging family planning (e.g., surgical sterilization), teach people to treat basic illness and injury with first aid, and hel[p improve village sanitation.
