Bhubaneswar: Just ahead of the Lok Sabha and Bidhan Sabha twin polls, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik 

 today  an- nounced a 4% increase

in Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Re- lief (TI) for Government employees and pension- ers. 

The State Govern- ment announced release of 4 percent additional dose of DA and TI in favour of 

State Govern- ment Employees and Pensioners respectively to enhance the rate from 46% to 50%. The 

en- hanced DA and TI will be paid retrospectively

from January 2024. More than 4.5 lakh State Government employees and 3.5 lakh pensioners will be 

benefited from the move. The Chief Minister has also announced enhancement in daily wages of 

unskilled, semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled workers. The mini- mum daily wages for 

unskilled and semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled workers has been in- creased to Rs 450, Rs 

500, Rs 550

and Rs 600, respectively. Lakhs of workers engaged in govern- ment and private sectors will ben-

efit from the decision. The present daily wage of the un- skilled and semi-skilled, skilled and 

highly skilled workers is—Rs 352, Rs 392, Rs 442 and Rs 502.

In another event, the Chief Min- ister has inaugurated a modern educational   complex   at Badapada 

in ‘swabhiman’ area of Malkangiri district. The complex, built over an area of seven acre at a cost 

of around Rs 19 crore.

More than 1,000 students from Class 1 to 12 will be imparted education at the complex which has 

state-of-the-art facili-

ties. The aim is to prepare the students for their fu- ture by providing them with all modern 

facilities. Apart from smart class- rooms, the complex is armed with a special e-li- brary with 

3000 books, tribal corner, activity room, NCC room, com- puter lab, ICT Smart Learning Centre, 

science lab and a hostel to accom- modate 200 boys. There is a separate girls’ hostel to 

accommodate 500 stu-

dents. Speaking on this occasion, the Chief Minister said that Malkangiri district occupies a 

special place in his heart and he always loves to launch new projects in the district. All major 

welfare programmes including the cheap rice scheme, Biju Swasthya  Kalyan  Yojana (BSKY) and LAccMI 

bus were first launched in the district, he said. Tathya