Patna, April 19: The Bihar cabinet on Thursday announced a 7 per cent hike in dearness allowance (DA) for state government employees.
“The government employees would now get 65 per cent of DA instead of 58 per cent. The hike will come into effect from January 1, 2012,” cabinet co-ordination department principal secretary Ravikant told reporters.
The decision would put an additional burden of Rs 1,007 crore annually on the state exchequer, he said, while making it clear that Rs 635 crore has been earmarked for payment of DA to serving employees, while Rs 372 crore would be spent on providing DA to pensioners and those getting family pensions.
In another important decision, the cabinet authorised chief minister Nitish Kumar to recommend the names to the governor to fill up the vacant posts of the “nominated category” in the Legislative Council. Twelve seats of the council are to be filled by distinguished persons from various fields like art, culture, entertainment, sports, academic and others. The governor nominates these seats on the recommendation of the state government.
Out of the 12 seats, two have become vacant after the resignation of JD(U) member Shambhu Sharan Srivastava and termination of membership of JD(U)’s Prem Kumar Mani for indulging in anti-party activities. The term of remaining 10 members would come to an end on May 9.
The cabinet also gave its nod for proroguing the 5th session of the 15th Legislative Assembly and 170th session of the Legislative Council, Ravikant said.
It also gave its nod for the creation of eight posts for carrying out the sixth economic census within 30 months (2012-13 to 2014-15) at an estimated cost of Rs 1.2 crore, Ravikant said, adding that the census would start from October this year. The census would be carried out to know about the total establishments in the unorganised sector — any enterprise engaged in income-generating activities.
The cabinet also sanctioned creation of 18 posts, including one each for driver and veterinary compounder, and 16 posts for animal keepers in Sanjay Gandhi Biological Park, the principal secretary said. It also approved the setting up of Bihar Knowledge Society to provide better information technology-related training programmes.
The cabinet also constituted a committee headed by former chief secretary V.S. Dubey to hear various types of complaints and grievances of teaching and non-teaching employees of the state universities. The committee would hear complaints related to sanctioned posts, appointment, promotion, pay-fixation, arrear payment and pension-related issues.
Around 19 decisions were taken at Thursday’s cabinet meeting.
