Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu announced 4 per cent DA for the employees and pensioners of the State benefitting 1.80 lakh employees and 1.70 lakh pensioners from 1st January, 2023 thereby bearing an extra burden of Rs 600 crore per year on the State exchequer.

In addition to this, the Chief Minister announced that the employees and pensioners will receive their November salary and pension on 28th October ahead of Deepawali.

He stated this while addressing media persons here today. The Chief Minister also announced to clear all the pending medical bills of employees and retirees for which a provision of Rs. 10 crores has already been made. He directed the concerned departments to clear all the pending medical bills this month and an adequate budget will be provided to the departments for this as per their demand.

He also announced that entire full amount of pending arrears to all pensioners above 75 years of age will be paid. He said that a total of Rs 202 crore would be spent in this financial year over the salary and pension arrears.

He also announced that an additional installment of arrears amounting to Rs. 20,000 for class-IV employees will be released to them in this fiscal itself.

Himachal Pradesh will be self-reliant by 2027 and there was no such financial crunch as being propagated in the media by the National and the State BJP leaders. He took a jibe at the leader of the Opposition for spreading lies about the financial status of the State and even misleading the Prime Minister and BJP national President.

He said that BJP has left no stone unturned in spreading misinformation about the State’s fiscal health. The payment of due amount of the employees including DA and arrears is testimony to the fact that the State Government was committed to addressing the grievances of its employees and there is no such financial crunch as of now.