In September, the Odisha government announced a 3 per cent hike in dearness allowance for its employees and pensioners. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik approved the proposal for increasing DA from 31 per cent to 34 per cent, effective from January 1, 2022. About four lakh employees and 3.5 lakh pensioners will be benefitted from the hike. 

Jharkhand led by Chief Minister Herman Soren is among six states that have announced the Dearness Allowance (DA) hike for government employees ahead of the festive season of Diwali.

Five other states were:Utter Pravesh,Punjab,Odisha,Haryana,Delhi,Chhattisgarh  and Rajasthan.All these states had announced DA hikes weeks before the festival of light.

The Jharkhand government has decided to increase the dearness allowance (DA) for state government employees and the dearness relief (DR) for its pensioners by 4%, taking it to 38% from existing 34% with effect from July 1 this year. The decision is expected to benefit around two lakh state government employees and 1.35 lakh pensioners.

All of them will get their salaries before for the month of October ends so that they can celebrate Diwali and Chhat festivals with a sense of joy.