Agartala, March 16 (IANS) The Tripura government on Monday announced a 5 per cent hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) for 1,83,582 government employees and pensioners in the state.

Making the announcement on the second day of the ongoing Budget session of the Tripura Assembly, Chief Minister Manik Saha informed the House that the revised DA and DR would come into effect from April 1, 2026.

The announcement drew desk-thumping from members of the treasury bench.

The Chief Minister made the announcement soon after Finance, Planning and Coordination Minister Pranajit Singha Roy presented the 2026–27 Budget in the Assembly.

“To implement the additional DA and DR, the state government will incur an extra expenditure of about Rs 500 crore annually,” Saha told the House.

Opposition members, including former minister Sudip Roy Barman of the Congress and Leader of the Opposition Jitendra Chaudhury of the CPI-M, said the DA and DR hike should have been included in the Finance Minister’s budget proposals.

“The Chief Minister has violated established norms and convention,” Roy Barman alleged, amid heated exchanges between treasury and opposition benches.

Jitendra Chaudhury, also a former minister and CPI-M Tripura state secretary, asked the Chief Minister to clarify the status of the pending DA and DR dues of state government employees and pensioners.

While Saha attempted to respond to the queries raised by the Leader of the Opposition, disruptions over other issues prevented him from completing his reply, prompting Acting Speaker Ram Prasad Paul to adjourn the House.

A Finance Department official said the decision would benefit more than 1,02,563 government employees and 81,019 pensioners.

The official noted that after coming to power in March 2018, the BJP-led government revised pay scales with effect from October 1, 2018, based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.

Since then, the state government has announced additional DA and DR hikes on several occasions for employees and pensioners.

State government employees and pensioners have long demanded parity in DA and DR with their counterparts in the Central government.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ratan Lal Nath said the Budget session of the Assembly will continue until March 25.

The ongoing session is the first sitting of the Tripura Assembly this year.

–IANS

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