Punjab DA hike: Bhagwant Mann raises DA to 53% as Diwali gift for 8 lakh employees, pensioners

Chandigarh. Punjab’s government employees and pensioners will take home more money in December, after Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann on Wednesday announced a 3% increase in dearness allowance (DA) and dearness relief (DR) ahead of Diwali, lifting it from 50% to 53%.

The increase comes into effect from November 1 and will be paid with December salaries and pensions. Nearly 8 lakh employees and pensioners stand to gain.

This is the second DA increase in two months. In September, the government had raised DA by 8%. Together, the two hikes add up to 11 percentage points, and Mann said no government had ever raised DA by that much in such a short time.

“The cumulative increase of 11 percentage points will benefit employees and pensioners by ₹1,813 crore during the current financial year,” the Chief Minister told reporters.

In a post on X, Mann put the yearly financial benefit to employees at about ₹3,988 crore. “Employees are the backbone of our government, and we are fully committed to their welfare, rights and overall well-being,” he wrote, wishing employees and their families a happy Diwali.

When the AAP government took charge in 2022, employees were getting DA at just 28%. Since then, it has gone up by 25 percentage points.

Mann took a swipe at earlier governments, saying they kept complaining of an empty treasury, while his government never used money as an excuse to hold back what employees were owed.

He also spoke about the old Sixth Punjab Pay Commission dues his government had inherited. The pay commission benefits were due from January 1, 2016, but were implemented only in July 2021. This left arrears of about ₹14,191 crore for the period from January 1, 2016, to June 30, 2021.

The government drew up a plan to pay these dues in phases. “We gave priority to pensioners, and their arrears were released on April 1, 2025. The arrears of serving government employees have started being released from April 1, 2026,” Mann said.

“So far, arrears amounting to ₹4,891 crore have been released, and the remaining ₹9,300 crore will also be paid,” he added.

Calling employees and pensioners part of the “Punjab Government family”, Mann said they handle people’s complaints, maintain law and order and run welfare schemes on the ground. “The success we have achieved in implementing numerous public welfare schemes has been possible largely due to the invaluable contribution of our employees,” he said.

The Chief Minister also said his government had carried out the largest-ever recruitment in government departments over four years and nine months. “We have provided 71,777 government jobs to our youth purely on merit, without any bribery or recommendation,” he said.

On pending demands of employees, Mann said, “I have always preferred dialogue to address the pending demands of employees, and our doors remain open for them at all times.”