Bhubaneswar, Oct 8 (IANS): Ahead of Durga Puja, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday announced 11 per cent hike in dearness allowance (DA) for state government employees and pensioners with effect from July 2021.

With this, the DA of the employees and pensioners has been increased from 17 per cent to 28 per cent. The hiked DA will be credited in the October salary, the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said in a statement.

The arrears from July 1, 2021 will be given on cash form to the government employees and pensioners this month. This move will benefit over 4 lakh employees and 3.5 lakh pensioners, it said.

The Odisha government has also revised the Group Insurance Scheme (GIS) for all of its employees. The GIS fee for the employees with grade pay of up to Rs 4,800 has been increased from Rs 7,500 to Rs 20,000.

Similarly for the employees having grade pay of Rs 5,400 or more, the GIS fee has been increased to Rs 30,000 from Rs 12,000. The increased GIS fee will be deducted from the salaries of the employees in 10 installments as before, the CMO said.

The financial assistance being given to the family members of the employees, in case of death, has also been increased. Now, the amount has been increased to Rs 4 lakh for employees with grade pay up to Rs 4,800, and Rs 6 lakh for employees with Rs 5,400 or above.

Similarly, the amount of funeral allowance has been increased from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 for all employees.