From DA Hike to Bonus, Pension, 16 lakh employees gets huge gift from govt

DA Hike– Good news for lakhs of state government employees. After the Modi government at the Center increased the DA / DR of central employees and pensioners to 55% from January 2025, now the state governments have also started increasing DA, but after Assam, Odisha, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, MP, UP, the Tamil Nadu government has given the gift of bonus along with DA to its employees and pensioners.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday increased the dearness allowance (DA) of employees by two per cent. The new rates will be effective from April 1, 2025. This will benefit about 16 lakh employees, teachers, pensioners and family pensioners. An additional allocation of Rs 1,252 crore will be made annually for this.

The CM said that to help government employees and teachers celebrate festivals with their families, the existing festival advance of Rs 10,000 will now be increased to Rs 20,000. In higher education of children, the education advance for professional education will be increased to Rs 1,00,000 from this year. For arts, science and polytechnic, it will be increased to Rs 50,000.

Pensioners also get a gift

The Pongal festival bonus given annually to retired C&D category employees, personal pensioners and family pensioners has been increased from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000. This will benefit about 4.71 lakh pensioners and family pensioners. The government will incur an additional expenditure of Rs 24 crore. The advance given to pensioners to help them celebrate the festival has also been increased from Rs 4000 to Rs 6,000. This will benefit about 52,000 pensioners and the government will incur an additional expenditure of Rs 10 crore.

CM also made these announcements for the employees

Earned leave of up to 15 days can be surrendered to avail cash benefits from October 1, 2025. This has been done after requests from government employees to implement it from this year. This move will benefit around 8 lakh government officials and teachers. The government will allocate an additional amount of Rs 3,561 crore for this.