Kolkata/IBNS: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday announced a Dearness Allowance (DA) hike of 4 percent for government employees, semi-government employees, teachers, non-teaching staff, and pensioners with effect from January 1, 2024.

About 14.5 lakh employees will benefit from the DA hike which costs the government exchequer of about Rs.2.755 crore annually.

With this hike, the state government employees' total dearness allowance increases to 10 percent, which would cost the state exchequer Rs 6.888 crore annually, a government communique said.

The Mamata Banerjee government has been receiving flak and facing protests over not increasing DA for the state government employees for long.

Earlier this year, Banerjee even called the state government employees, who were protesting with demands for a hike in DA for over 60 days, "thieves".