Agartala, Sept 23:
Finance Minister Pranajit Singha Roy on Tuesday informed the Assembly that the state government has undertaken several reforms over the past years to improve the pay structure, allowances, and welfare schemes for employees and pensioners.
In a written reply to Congress MLA Gopal Chandra Roy, the minister said that soon after coming to power in 2018, the government revised the fitment factor for employees from 2.25 to 2.57 to align the basic pay with central recommendations. “This revision ensured a 14.22 percent rise in basic pay. For example, a salary of Rs 1,000 earlier fetched Rs 2,250, but now with the revised structure, it stands at Rs 2,570. This has further benefitted employees with every DA increase,” he explained.
Roy pointed out that while many states suspended DA during the Covid-19 pandemic, Tripura continued releasing DA for serving employees and Dearness Relief for pensioners. To ease financial pressure, the government also extended the Cash in Lieu of LTC facility.
The minister highlighted that fixed-pay employees, earlier stuck in the same status for nearly a decade, now become eligible for regularisation after completing five years of continuous service. An Ad-hoc Promotion Policy was also introduced to overcome long-pending legal hurdles, benefiting a large section of employees.
Roy further stated that efforts are on to bring all government employees under the Chief Minister’s Jan Arogya Yojana health scheme. In addition, the retirement age of Tripura State Rifles personnel was raised from 58 to 60, while ration money and dress allowances for TSR and police were revised. The pension for home guards has also been tripled from Rs 750 to Rs 2,500.
Festival benefits have been significantly enhanced, with Festival Advance increased from Rs 5,000 to Rs 20,000 and Festival Grant tripled compared to 2018. “We have also substantially narrowed the DA gap with the Centre,” the minister concluded.
