Tamil Nadu CM announces 9 welfare measures for State Government employees

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 28 (ANI): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin on Monday made nine announcements in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly for the welfare of the State government staff.
During the session Stalin said that the Government staff are known as administration pillars and government's arms. Since the Dravidian model of government takes charge, many of schemes for people and also many schemes for various department are being implemented which gets applause. In many ways Tamil Nadu is top State in India. Government employees and teachers hard work is one important reason for this, he said.
The Chief Minister further said, "On behalf of Tamil Nadu government, I appreciate all government employees who are working hard not to miss anyone in government schemes."
The first announcement is the earned leave surrender, starting from October 1, up to 15 days of earned leave can be surrendered for a cash benefit. Approximately 8 lakh government employees and teachers will benefit. To implement this, the government will allocate an additional Rs 3,561 crore per year.
The second announcement is the dearness allowance (DA) hike. Based on the Central Government's decision to increase DA by 2 per cent from January 2025, the State Government will also increase the DA by 2% from the same date for state government employees. This will benefit about 16 lakh employees, including teachers, pensioners, and family pensioners. This hike will cost the government an additional RS 1,252 crore per year.
The third one is to help government employees and teachers celebrate festivals with their families, the existing festival advance of Rs 10,000 will now be increased to Rs 20,000.
The fourth one is the higher education of employees' children. From this year, for vocational education, the education advance will be increased to Rs 1,00,000. For arts, science, and polytechnic, it will be increased to Rs 50,000.
Until now, women employees received Rs 10,000 and male employees Rs 6,000 as marriage advance. This will now be increased to Rs 5,00,000 for all employees, regardless of gender, in the fifth announcement.
The sixth announcement is the Pongal festival bonus given annually by the Tamil Nadu Government to retired C & D category staff, all types of individual pensioners, and family pensioners will be increased from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000. This will benefit about 4.71 lakh pensioners and family pensioners, costing the government an additional Rs 24 crore.
The seventh announcement is to help pensioners celebrate festivals with their families; the existing festival advance of Rs 4,000 will be increased to Rs 6,000. This will benefit about 52,000 pensioners, and cost the government an additional Rs 10 crore.
The committee has been formed to thoroughly study the Old Pension Scheme, the Contributory Pension Scheme, and the Integrated Pension Scheme. Based on the demands from various employee and teacher associations, this committee is instructed to submit its report and recommendations by September 30, the eighth announcement.
Maternity leave was extended from nine months to one year with pay from July 2021. However, currently, this leave is not counted towards the probation period, affecting promotion and seniority of many young female employees. To protect their service rights, the government has decided that maternity leave will now be counted towards the probation period, the ninth announcement. (ANI)