Mamata announces grant to state government employees

Kolkata: After coming to power for the second time, the Mamata Banerjee led government on Friday announced a grant of interim relief to state government employees amounting to 10 percent of their band pay.

"In our first cabinet meeting, we have decided to provide a grant of interim relief to state government employees amounting to ten percent of the band pay drawn by them," said state Finance Minister Amit Mitra.

"This will be effective from July and will cover state employees, teachers, local government employees and pensioners," he said.

"The interim relief is small in nature but the net impact to the state exchequer will be around Rs.3,000 crore," said Banerjee.

The difference in dearness allowance for state employees compared to their central counterparts stands at 50 percent.

Banerjee had announced a 10 percent hike in dearness allowance for the state employees from January reducing the difference to 44 percent. Later in March, the centre hiked the allowance by another six percent.

The government in its first stint had announced the Sixth Pay Commission to review the pay structure of state government employees.