Bhubaneswar: Following demands by employees over pending dearness allowance (DA), Odisha government has announced 5% Dearness Relief (DR) for its pensioners with effect from July 1, 2019.

With announcement, the Dearness Relief was enhanced to 17% from 12%.

The Dearness Relief (TI) on pension/family pension shall be paid to the state government pensioners/family pensioners at the same rate of 5% on the revised basic pension/family pension with effect from July 1, 2019, a notification stated on Thursday.

Last month, the government had announced 5% DA for its employees and pensioners with effect from January 1, 2020 instead of July 1, 2019. However, the employees threatened to stage protest demanding release of five-month pending DA after hike by Centre for its employees.

With sanction of 5% DR for pensioners, the employees may put pressure on the authorities to release pending amount from July 1, last year.