<span style="color: #222222;">Gujarat government has decided to increase the Dearness Allowance (DA) of its over nine lakh employees and pensioners by three per cent. Now, the employees and pensioners will get a total 12 percent dearness allowance from the existing 9 per cent with retrospective effect from the 1st of January this year. This was announced by Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel in Gandhinagar this evening. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Mr. Patel said the government has also decided to equate the salaries and other allowances of its contract-based teachers and other teaching staff of grantable schools with that of the permanent government school teachers with effect from 1st April, 2019.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"><br />''<br />''Mr. Patel, who also holds the portfolio of Finance Ministry, said that related arrears would be paid to the employees and pensioners with the salary of the month of July. He said by increasing the DA, the state exchequer would incur an extra financial burden of 1071 crore rupees annually.</span><br />