Srinagar:
Jammu and Kashmir government today announced a six per cent hike in the Dearness Allowance (DA) of its employees with effect from January this year.
The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in Srinagar.
Announcing the cabinet decisions at a press conference here, Education Minister Nayeem Akhtar said "we announce a hike in DA from 107 to 113 from January this year."
"This is in fact for the first time that the government employees are getting DA without resorting to agitation," Mr Akhtar, who was also flanked by Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, said.
He said it was a practice that the DA was not released till there was an agitation.
"Today as part of its duty, the government had taken a decision, which also belies the rumours about money not coming (from centre) and also gives out a message that the system is getting streamlined in the state," he said.
Mr Drabu said the idea behind the decision was to keep pace with the centre announcing DA for its employees.
"We have announced DA from January 15 to July 15 (and will be paid to the employees) through Provident Fund route, post that it will in cash, thereby we are moving to a system whereby the nearest amount will be given in cash," he said.
He said the large part will be in cash.
"In respect of employees who are at the new pension scheme, the instalments will be in cash. Financial implications is about Rs 285 crores for the year. Of that Rs 240 crore is salary and the rest is pension. We have made provision for that in the Budget.
"The idea is to build system. In the last three-four months, we have got a lot of liabilities at various levels and we are trying to work out a system wherein there will be a transparency and finance will not be a constraint for development activities," the finance minister said.