The Ministry of Railways has issued instructions to increase the Dearness allowance of the employees of Indian Railways. According to reports, the Railways has cleared the way to increase the DA of employees of all zones and DR of pensioners. Railway employees will get DA arrears of three months.

As issued by the Ministry, dearness allowance will now be given with the effective revised rates. This decision is likely to benefit approximately 14 lakh employees and pensioners. The revised rates are set to be paid by the end of this month, the reports said.

The Railways employees must note that the decision from the ministry has been communicated in a letter on behalf of Jai Kumar, Deputy Director, Railway Board to all the zones and production units on Tuesday. Notably, the revision of DA was stalled for a year and a half due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This move is expected to bring relief given the rising fuel and oil prices as well as inflation.

The Central government previously increased the DA and DR for the central government employees from 17 percent to 28 percent in July 2021. This was again repeated in the last hike in October 2021 when the central government employees witnessed a jump of 3 percent.  7th Pay Commission Latest Update: Centre Likely To Announce 3% DA Hike for Government Employees on Holi 2022

DA is a salary component for government employees and pensioners. Its purpose is to soothe the effects of rising inflation. The salary of a government employee is revised twice a year, in January and July.  7th Pay Commission Latest Update: Odisha Government Employees Likely To Receive Arrears in March 2022 Salary

On March 30, during a Cabinet meeting chaired by PM modi the Union cabinet had approved the increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners by 3 per cent from Jan 1, 2022. The move from the government increase the DA from the previous 31 per cent of basic pay to 34 per cent.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 07, 2022 11:17 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).