Chennai, Jan 1 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Sunday announced an increase in dearness allowance (DA) for the state government employees.

With this announcement, the dearness allowance of the government staff would increase from 34 per cent to 38 per cent.

The Chief Minister in a statement said, "Accept this as a New Year Gift to celebrate the beginning of the year 2023. I appeal to the government employees to extend their cooperation with the government to improve the living standard of the people."

The Tamil Nadu government will have to shell out an additional Rs 2,359 crore for the increase in DA to the government employees. The statement from the Chief Minister's office said that even though this was a huge financial burden to the state government, it was willingly taking this as it would benefit the people of the state.

The statement also said that the government was well aware of the service of the state government employees to reach the various welfare schemes for the people of the state.

The statement said that the government was mired in the financial crisis that was inherited from the previous government but has given a DA hike to the employees to prove its commitment to the employees.

The Chief Minister's Office also said that it will constitute a committee led by the state Finance secretary to look into the teacher's demand for equal pay for equal work.