Bihar govt raises DA by 6% for workers

Patna: Bihar government on Thursday hiked the Dearness Allowance (DA) of its employees and pensioners by 6 percent to 125 percent with retrospective effect from January 1, 2016.

Brajesh Mehrotra, Principal Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, informed that a decision in this regard was taken at a Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

With the latest hike, the DA of the state government employees and pensioners has jumped to 125 percent. The DA hike will put an additional burden of Rs 842 crore on the state exchequer, he told reporters here.

Among other decisions, the state government approved a proposal to strengthen Excise Intelligence Bureau (EIB) in order to effectively enforce total prohibition which had come in place with effect from April 5 last, Mehrotra said.

For strengthening the EIB, the Bihar government has approved proposal to create one post each of Deputy Excise Commissioner and Assistant Excise Commissioner, he said.

Besides, two posts of Excise Inspector and five posts of Assistant Excise Inspector will also be created, he added.

Further, the state cabinet has given in-principle approval for Bihar Disaster Reduction Roadmap 2015-30, he said.

It is being drafted on the basis of outcome of the third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in Sendai, Japan from March 14-18 last year, in which India alongwith 131 countries participated.

He also informed that a sum of Rs 112.84 crore has been sanctioned the state government for construction of skill development training centres at 534 blocks.