By  Bhupen Goswami

Guwahati : Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday announced a slew of new measures taken after the pay anomaly committee report was submitted to the Assam government. Govt employees of Kamrup (Metro) will get 10% (of basic pay) as house rent allowance from now onwards. For employees stationed in districts and sub-divisional headquarters, the house rent allowance will be 8% of basic pay and it will be 7% for employees in other places. Finance Department has released Rs 99 crore to Assam Tea Corporation Limited for payment of retirement benefits to over 1.6 lakh employees which was due for the past 20 years. Also, six new pay scales were announced for teachers of Assam Government LP, ME and HS schools. New grade pays are Rs 4200, Rs 5200, Rs 6400, Rs 7600, Rs 9400 and Rs 11800. A new grade pay of Rs 6200 has been fixed for teachers who are untrained and undergraduate. On the other hand, untrained but graduate teachers will now get Rs 6800. LP and ME, Trained and Graduate teachers will now get Rs 8700 as grade pay. Drivers working at Assam Bhawans outside the state will now get Rs 20 per hour for every extra hour they are on duty. A special allowance will now be made available to the persons working in government deaf and dumb schools in Guwahati. The Finance and PWD Minister also stated that Assam government has almost got into a deal with the Nabard Bank in Mumbai who has agreed to finance the building of 1172 concrete bridges across Assam. This new scheme will be called Lachit-Chilarai Setu Nirman, further informed the minister. Rs 2000 crore will be invested in the entire scheme.