Chandigarh, Jul 21 (IANS): Eyeing the forthcoming Assembly elections, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Saturday announced a bonanza for employees by granting them house rent allowance as per the recommendations of Seventh Central Pay Commission.

The revised house rent allowance would be implemented with effect from August 1 and it would benefit about 3.5 lakh employees.

This decision would put an additional expenditure of Rs 1,900 crore on the state exchequer, a government statement said.

The Chief Minister announced this and several other incentives for government employees after an over six-hour meeting here with the representatives of employees and trade unions, like the Haryana Karamchari Mahasangh, Sarva Karamchari Sangh, Rajya Karamchari Sangh and Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh.

He also announced to revive the ex-gratia policy for dependents of the deceased employees that had been discontinued since 1996.

The new policy would be implemented with effect from August 1 and would cover those employees, whose age was 52 years or less or had completed more than five years of service.

Khattar said the dependents of the deceased employee would be given two options - either to get salary of the remaining period of service or get a government job of Group C and D category for that period, as per the qualification, provided that none of the family member is in the government service.

Those who have not yet got the financial benefit after the employee's death can still opt for the option of the government job, he added.