Virbhadra announces 4% DA hike for govt staff, pensioners

SHIMLA :Gearing up for the assembly election due later this year, chief minister Virbhadra Singh on Tuesday announced four per cent Dearness Allowance to the state government employees and pensioners, from January to be paid in September.

Presiding over a state-level Independence Day function at Rampur in Shimla district, the chief minister also announced a government degree college at Jeuri.

Highlighting the achievements, he said unemployment was the biggest issue when his government came to power

Fulfilling its poll promise, the Congress government announced an unemployment allowance of ₹1,000 per month to those unemployed youth whose educational qualification 10+2 or above, he said, adding that youth with disability were being given an unemployment allowance of ₹1,500 per month.

He further said emoluments of employees on contract have been enhanced from 50 per cent to 75 per cent of grade pay and wages of daily labourers have been increased from ₹150 to ₹210, besides many other benefits to employees and pensioners.

“We have established ‘Kaushal Vikas Nigam’ to implement Rs 640 crore the ADB-assisted Skill Development Project,” the Chief Minister said, adding that as many as 31,991 youths have been provided employment in the private sector companies and around 63,000 in public sector units. An almost equal number of employment avenues were generated in the private sector, he added. On the education sector, the chief minister said that Himachal Pradesh was becoming an “education hub” of the country as new colleges have been opened.

With the opening of 50 new colleges and taking over of six colleges by the state government, he said the total number of colleges in Himachal Pradesh has gone up to 128.

“About 900 posts in different categories have been created for smooth functioning of these newly opened colleges,” he said, adding over 230 new health institutions have been opened in the state.