Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Tuesday announced additional Dearness Allowance (DA) to state government employees and pensioners from January 2017 to be paid in October besides announcing a Government Degree College at Jeuri.

Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on Tuesday announced additional Dearness Allowance (DA) to state government employees and pensioners from January 2017 to be paid in October besides announcing a Government Degree College at Jeuri.

Presiding over the state-level Independence Day function at Rampur in Shimla district, the CM congratulated the people of the state on the occasion saying, “We salute the freedom fighters and our countrymen who laid down their lives for attaining Independence.” 

Counting the achievements of the state government, he said the state government declared unemployment allowance of Rs 1,000 per month to educated unemployed youth. The youth with disability were being given unemployment allowance of Rs 1,500 per month.

Singh said emoluments of contract employees had been enhanced from 50 to 75 per cent of grade pay and wages of daily wagers had been increased from Rs 150 to Rs 210. He said the government had announced regularisation of contract employees after three years of service besides many other benefits to employees and pensioners.

The Chief Minister said 2,314 kilometres of new roads and 215 bridges had been constructed in the past four and a half years and 864 villages were provided road connectivity. With this the total length of roads in the state is now around 37,000 km, he added.