Chennai, Apr 28 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Monday announced

a slew of measures for the welfare of Government employees and teachers.

Making a Statement Under Rule 110 in the State Assembly before moving the debate

on the demand for grants for Police an Fire services department, he made a total of

nine announcements benefitting state government employees and teachers.

The new announcements included restoration of the earned leave (EL) surrender

system from October one this year and a two per cent hike in the Dearness Allowance

(DA) with effect from January 1, 2025.

Pointing out the announcement made in the Budget that the EL surrender system,

which was suspended due to severe financial crunch in the wake of the COVID-19

pandemic, would be restored from April 1, 2026, Mr Stalin said said it would be

restored from October one this year.

This would benefit eight lakh government employees and teachers, and the government

would incur an additional annual expenditure of Rs 3,561 crore, he said.

He said in line with the Union government announcing a 2% increase in DA for its

employees with effect from January one this year, the Tamil Nadu government also

decided to hike it by 2%, with effect from the same date, benefitting over 16 lakh

government employees, teachers, and pensioners.

This would entail an an annual expenditure of Rs 1,252 crore, he added.

Announcing hike in ‘festival advance’ from Rs 10,000 to Rs 20,000 benefitting about

eight lakh government employees, Mr. Stalin also said that the ‘education advance’

for the benefit of children of government employees would also be increased to

Rs one lakh for professional programmes and Rs 50,000 for Arts and Science and

Polytechnic courses.

Apart from substantially increasing the ‘marriage advance’ of Rs 6,000 for men and Rs 10,000

for women to Rs 5 lakh, the Chief Minister said the Pongal gift of Rs 500 to all pensioners, who

retired from C and D Groups, and family pensioners would be doubled to Rs 1,000. This would

benefit about 4.70 lakh pensioners and family pensioners, entailing an additional expenditure

of Rs 24 crore to the state exchequer.

Increase in the festival advance for pensioners from Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000 entailing an additional

expenditure of Rs 10 crore was among the announcements made by Mr. Stalin, who said that the

Committee constituted to look into the Old Pension Scheme, Contributory Pension Scheme and

Unified Pension Scheme, to recommend the one best suited for the State, would be asked to

submit its report by September 30 this year.

He also promised to soon resolve the issue of women government employees losing seniority in

service affecting their promotions while availing maternity leave during their probation period.

UNI GV 1848