Bhopal, Oct 23 (IANS): While Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced to raise the Dearness Allowance (DA) of the state employees by 8 per cent, the opposition Congress has demanded to hike it up by 28 per cent.

With the announcement ahead of Diwali festival, the state government employees in Madhya Pradesh will be getting a total DA of 12 per cent.

Several unions of the state employees have demanded that they should be given DA up to 28 per cent, equal to the Central government employees.

Extending his support, former Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Saturday wrote a letter to Chouhan and demanded the same.

Meanwhile, the former chief minister also accused the Chouhan government of not clearing DA for state employees for the last several months.

"His (Kamal Nath) government had decided to raise DA of state employees by 5 per cent in March 15, 2020 and they were supposed to get benefit from April 1, 2021. Since then the Chouhan government kept the decision in abeyance for several months," the former Chief Minister said in the letter.