Lucknow, Dec 16 : Ahead of 2022 state Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath government has announced a 3 per cent point increase in the Dearness Allowance (DA) for government employees, from the existing 28 per cent to 31 per cent. The increase will be applicable with retrospective effect from July 2021 and the arrears will be transferred to the employees' Provident Fund account. The last revision was announced on July 28, 2021 when the DA was revised to 28 per cent, the rate at which employees have been receiving the allowance since. A revision of the DA was withheld in 2020 due to Covid-19 at which point it was 17 per cent. An official said the DA is increased twice annually, on January 1 and July 1 but in April 2020, the Centre and then the state announced that there would be no revision in DA till July 1, 2021 in order to help the government financially tide over the Covid-19 pandemic. State government sources said for those who are members of the National Pension Scheme, some amount of the revised DA will be deposited in the NPS accounts. Those who retired before the decision was announced will have dues paid to them in cash. /IANS