Dispur Announces Rs 500 Crore for Second Capital Region Project, 2% DA Hike for State Govt Employees

Staff Reporter

Guwahati: The state cabinet today hiked the dearness allowance (DA) of state government employees by an additional 2%. The cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, also made several other decisions during the meeting held late this evening.

This was the first cabinet meeting after the induction of 12 ministers today, bringing the total number of ministers to 17, including the CM.

Following the cabinet meeting, the Chief Minister addressed the media, saying, "Today the state cabinet decided to hike the dearness allowance of state government employees by an additional 2%. Presently, the state government pays 58% DA to state government employees. With today's increase, the DA will rise to 60%. The hike will be implemented with immediate effect."

Regarding the second state capital at Dibrugarh, the CM said, "During the government's last tenure, we declared Dibrugarh the second state capital. In today's cabinet meeting, we finalised the area of the second state capital region. We also decided to constitute an authority named the Second State Capital Region Development Authority, Dibrugarh (SCRDA-D). The chairman of the Authority will be Dibrugarh MLA Prasanta Phukan with cabinet rank. The MLA of Dibrugarh will be the ex-officio member of the SCRDA-D. The government will spend Rs 500 crore in 5 years on the second state capital region, excluding other development works.

The Chief Minister also stated that the second state capital region will cover an area comprising 20 km radius of the Dibrugarh Capital Complex within Dibrugarh District.

The state cabinet also approved the hike in the MLA area development fund to Rs 1.5 crore, from the earlier Rs 1 crore, in this financial year. From the next financial year, it will be further increased to Rs 2 crore, of which 10% will be used for the procurement of instruments and the remaining 90% for infrastructure development.

The cabinet meeting today also decided to commence the budget session on July 6, 2026. Regarding this, the CM said, "Last time we had submitted a vote-on-account budget, due to which we couldn't carry out some of the schemes. After the passing of the budget in July, all schemes will run normally from August 1."

On the distribution of portfolios to the ministers, the CM said, "I want to take some time, a maximum of seven days, to allocate the portfolios. I will examine the work of the earlier ministers before deciding on the portfolio allocation. Furthermore, I want to think about which area a new minister will find suitable to work in."

The State Cabinet has approved the amendment of the Assam Secondary Education (Provincialised Schools) Service (Amendment) Rules, 2026, through amendments to Rule 5(2) and Rule 16(4) of the principal Rules, to regulate the procedure for promotion of serving Grade IV employees to Grade III positions.

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