Bhopal, Oct 21 (PTI) In a Diwali gift to state government employees, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday announced an eight per cent hike in the Dearness Allowance (DA). The decision took the total DA component paid to government employees to 20 per cent. Earlier in the day, the Union Cabinet hiked the dearness allowance and dearness relief by 3 per cent for the central government employees. “The employees of my state are `Karma-yogi" in the true sense. The service they have rendered during the coronavirus period is certainly commendable," Chouhan said in a statement. In the last one and a half years, the state had to face two "horrific waves of coronavirus" which led to increase in expenditure and also hit the revenues, he said. "This is why, for some time we had to postpone salary increase of the employees. Now we have decided to increase the dearness allowance," said the CM. The employees will get increased DA with the salary of October 2021, to be disbursed in November 2021. The total DA of officers and employees of the state government will increase from 12 percent to 20 percent, the chief minister added. The salary hike due in July 2020 and January 2021 had been postponed because of the impact of the pandemic on the state"s finances, and the government has now decided that 50 per cent of this pending increment too will be provided with the salary of October 2021, he said. The remaining amount will be paid with the salary for February 2022, to be paid in March 2022, he added. PTI MAS KRK KRK