DA Hike Alert: The Jharkhand government on Tuesday hiked the dearness allowance (DA) of its employees to 53 per cent of basic pay from the existing 50 per cent, effective from July 1 this year, an official said.

The dearness relief to pensioners was also increased by 3 percentage points to 53 per cent.

The proposal regarding the hike in DA to state government employees and dearness relief to pensioners was approved at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Hemant Soren.

The hike will benefit over three lakh employees and pensioners in the state, officials said.

A total of 10 proposals were passed by the cabinet, including administrative approval of Rs 99.56 crore for the multi-disciplinary education and research university (MERU) in the campus of Vinoba Bhave University (VBU), Hazaribag, under the Pradhan Mantri Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (PM-USHA) “We are ready to move ahead with a visionary mindset for Jharkhand’s betterment,” Soren said.