Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has announced 7 per cent increase in the dearness allowance for its nearly 2,00,000 employees, new pay scales for panchayat teachers, four per cent subsidy on bank interest to farmers, sitting allowance to panchayat representatives and plots to MPs and MLAs in the new capital city.
Dr Singh announced these sops while winding up the debate on the appropriation bill for Rs 39,677 crore for 2012-13 which was passed by voice vote in the state Assembly last evening. The decision to increase the DA by 7 per cent of basic pay with effect from April 1 and another installment of DA in July, will entail an additional burden of Rs 300 crore to the state exchequer and end disparity between the DA of central and state government employees in the next fiscal. Besides, the Chief Minister announced new pay scales for panchayat teachers in the state with a 27 per cent salary hike for Grade-1, 18 per cent hike for Grade-2 and 16 per cent hike for Grade-3 teachers.
This would put an additional burden of Rs 76 cr on the Government. He also declared 20 per cent increase in the wages of contractual workers from April. The Chief Minister, who has given maximum thrust on agriculture and allied sector in the 2012-13 budget to boost agricultural production, announced a 4 per cent subsidy to farmers on crop loans from nationalised banks, who now charge 7 per cent interest on crop loans to small and marginal farmers.
The government will bear an additional burden of Rs 30 cr. Earlier, during his budget presentation, the Chief Minister had proposed reduction in the interest rate on crop loans from 3 per cent to 1 per cent on loans obtained by farmers from rural and cooperative banks. The Chief minister further hiked the honorarium of sarpanchs to Rs 500 per sitting to a maximum of Rs 2,000 per month. For the first time, the panchayat members in the state would get an honorarium of Rs 100 per sitting. In order to make the Members of Parliament from Chhattisgarh and state legislators happy, the Chief Minister announced his government's decision to provide plots to them in the new capital city now under construction at village Rakhi, about 20 km from here
Source : UNI
