Agartala, March 21 : The Tripura government on Friday announced 3 per cent hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) to its 1,88,000 government employees and pension holders.

Making the announcement on the opening day of the week-long Budget session of the Tripura Assembly, Chief Minister Manik Saha with this three per cent fresh hike, DA and DR increased to 33 per cent from 30 per cent.

The DA and the DR would be effective from April 1, the Chief Minister announced amid thumping of the desks by the members in the House.

The Chief Minister announced the DA and DR hike soon after Finance, Planning and Coordination Minister Pranajit Singha Roy presented the 2025-26 Budget in the House.

"To pay the fresh DA and DR, the state government had to incur an additional expenditure of Rs 300 crore," CM Saha told the House.

Finance Department officials said that over 1,06,000 government employees and 82,000 pensioners would benefit from the government decision.

The official said that after coming into power in March 2018, the BJP government revised the pay scales, with effect from October 1, 2018, based on the 7th Central Pay Commission recommendations. Thereafter, the state government released additional DA and DR several times to its employees and pensioners.

State government employees and pensioners had long been demanding from the state government that their DA and DR be equal to that of Central government employees and pensioners.

Meanwhile, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ratan Lal Nath said the Budget session would continue till April 1.

The current session would be the second session of the Tripura Assembly this year.

"This Tripura Assembly session would be the longest in 15 years. The government wants more detailed and in-depth discussions on the Budget and other important issues. We want maximum numbers of treasury and opposition benches members to participate in the Budget discussion and other important matters," the Parliamentary Affairs Minister told the media.

/IANS