Tripura government has sanctioned increased festival advance for all categories of employees in the state on the eve of ‘Durga Puja’.

Addressing a press conference at Civil Secretariat on Thursday afternoon, Finance Minister Pranajit Singha Roy said that all  categories of government employees including  Group-C and D  will get the festival grant with hike of Rs. 300 and all categories of employees including DRWs will be entitled to get advance of Rs 20,000 each for the ‘Durga Puja’ or festival.  He said altogether 1, 97, 176 employees of the state government will get the benefit of increased festival grant and ex-gratia.

He said that in last financial year year 2022-23, the festival grants or ex gratia for the Group C, Group D and DRWs and pensioners got Rs. 1500 and in the present financial year (2023-24), it has been increased to Rs. 300 and now employees will get Rs. 1800 of festival grant.

The part time workers, contractual, casual workers, Anganwadi workers, helpers, Home Guards and SPO jawans get festival grant of Rs. 1700 in the last financial year and with hike of Rs. 300, this year they will get Rs.2000 as festival grant, said Singha Roy and added that a total of Rs. 36 crore will be utilized for this purpose.

He said that the amount for festival advance for government employees under Group-A, B , C and D categories will be unchanged and they will get Rs.20,000 like last year.

He said that employees, apart from celebration of Durga Puja, the employees celebrates their own religious festivals like Christmas, Garia Puja, Buddha Purnima, Eid, Bengali new year, Mahabir Jayanti and Birthday of Guru Nanak can get their festival grant and festival advance once in a year.

The Anganwadi workers and helpers and Home Guards will be given Rs 5 thousand each while Asha workers will be given Rs 2 thousand each and they will be paid by the NHM authority.’

The Finance Minister said that the previous Left Front government had given festival grants to employees at Rs. 700 in the financial year 2017-18 and after formation of BJP led government; the government has increased festival grant or the ex-gratia at Rs. 1000 in the financial years 2018-19. In the last financial years ( 2022-23) it has been increased at Rs. 1500 and Rs. 1700, now the present government led by Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha has increased it to Rs. 2000, said Singha Roy and added that similarly the festival advance has also been increased from Rs. 5000 to Rs. 20,000 in the financial years of 2023-24.