AGARTALA, Jan 8 � The Tripura government has released five percent DA/DR to State government employees and pensioners taking it to 56 percent, though this is much lower compared to what Central government employees are getting.
The additional DA would incur an annual financial involvement of Rs 157.50 crore for the State and Rs 26.25 crore for the current financial year, said Finance Minister Bhanulal Saha at a press conference here on Thursday.
After the recent hike in the DA/DR, a State government employee receives 56 percent DA while each Central government employee gets 107, leading a gap of around 51 percent.
State government employees are not happy with the hike in the DA as they are still lowest-paid employees in the country. �We expected the government to effect a hefty hike keeping in mind of the tenure of the 14th Finance Commission coming into effect from the next fiscal. Over one lakh government employees and 50,000 other employees will be deprived of getting decent salaries even during the 14th Finance Commission�s period,� said the general secretary of Tripura Govt Employees� Federation, Samar Roy.
The Cabinet further resolved to impose 14.5 percent VAT on all tobacco products. The State registered an alarming growth in the use of tobacco products in the past few years.
The Council of Ministers also cleared proposal for establishing a separate State university in the State. The University is planned to be started based on the current infrastructure of the Maharaja Bir Bikram (MBB) College at Agartala, Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty said here on Thursday.
The Bill would be placed at the forthcoming session of State Legislative Assembly scheduled to start from February 16 next. All ancillary details relating to the introduction of the State University would be initiated after the Bill is placed in the House, the minister said.
Currently, the State has one Central University and a private-run university. �We currently have 22 government degree colleges, five technical institutes, two medical colleges and paramedical colleges in Tripura. This is becoming a burden on the Tripura Central University to monitor all academic operations in so many degree colleges,� Chakraborty told reporters.
