Chandigarh, October 24
Employees and pensioners of both Punjab and Haryana could not have asked for a better Diwali gift as the Chief Ministers of the two states announced enhancement of their dearness allowance (DA) from the existing 17 per cent to 21 per cent of the basic pay. The enhanced rate of DA would be payable retrospectively from July 1 this year.
While the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, said that enhanced DA and its arrears would be paid in cash, the Haryana Chief Minister announced that arrears would be credited to the General Provident Fund (GPF) accounts of the employees and the DA would be paid in cash from November 1.
The Haryana Finance Minister, Mr Birender Singh, said that the employees who had opted to retain pre-revised scales, in their case, the earlier provisions would continue to be applicable while regulating DA. Their DA would be computed with effect from April 1, 2004 on the basis of basic pay, dearness pay and non-practicing allowance.
Meanwhile, the Punjab Government has announced a restricted holiday on the occasion of birth anniversary of Sant Nam Dev Ji on October 26 and cancelled the earlier announced restricted holiday of November 12 in this connection.
