Currently, around 80,000 Group B non-gazetted and Group C employees are working with the Delhi government.
New Delhi: Giving festive cheers to his employees, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Monday announced Rs 7,000 Diwali bonus for the Group B non-gazetted and Group C employees of the Delhi government. He said a total of Rs 56,000 crores will be spent to provide this bonus. The chief minister said his government has always endeavoured to make life better for its employees and that such efforts will continue in the future.
“We will provide Rs 7,000 as a bonus to the Group B non-gazetted and Group C employees of the Delhi government. Currently, around 80,000 Group B non-gazetted and Group C employees are working with the Delhi government. A total of Rs 56,000 crores will be spent to provide this bonus,” Kejriwal said in a statement.
#WATCH | Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal says “…We will provide Rs 7,000 as a bonus to the Group B non-gazetted and Group C employees of Delhi Government. Currently, around 80,000 Group B non-gazetted and Group C employees are working with Delhi Govt. A total of Rs 56,000 crores will… pic.twitter.com/xBKtNkqkxo
— ANI (@ANI) November 6, 2023
Indians across the country celebrate Diwali as the festival symbolises the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance”. Notably, Diwali is celebrated on Amavasya (or the new moon), the 15th day of the month of Kartik, every year. Diwali this year will be celebrated on November 12.
Just like the Delhi governemnt, the Centre had last month approved Diwali Bonus for Group C and non-gazetted Group B rank officials, including paramilitary forces. In this regard, the finance ministry fixed the cap for computing non-productivity linked bonuses (ad-hoc bonuses) for central government employees at Rs 7,000 for 2022-23.
Ahead of the festive season, the central government last week decided to hike the dearness allowance for its employees by 4 percentage points to 46 per cent of the basic salary and pay 78 days of salaries as bonus for non-gazetted railway staff.
Giving details, Union Minister Anurag Thakur said the increase in dearness allowance and dearness relief will benefit 48.67 lakh central government employees and 67.95 lakh pensioners, respectively.
The release of the additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) will be applicable from July 1, 2023. DA and DR are given twice a year to compensate employees and pensioners, respectively, for price rise.
The combined impact on the exchequer on account of both DA and DR would be Rs 12,857 crore per annum. In March this year and September last year also, the increase in DA and DR was 4 percentage points. The DA and DR hikes are applicable from January 1 and July 1.
Thakur also informed that railway employees will receive a bonus equivalent to their 78 days’ salaries, benefiting more than 11.07 lakh non-gazetted staff of the national transporter.
The decision will benefit track maintainers, loco pilots, train managers (guards), station masters, supervisors, technicians, technician helpers, pointsmen, ministerial staff and other Group ‘C’ staff, excluding the RPF and RPSF personnel.
The payment of the Productivity Linked Bonus (PLB) to the railway staff is expected to cost the exchequer Rs 1,968.87 crore, Thakur said.