Bhopal, Aug 1 (IANS): The Madhya Pradesh government on Monday announced a Dearness Allowance (DA) hike of 3 per cent for the state government employees bringing them on par with the Central government employees.

Now, the state government employees will be getting a total 34 per cent DA, equal to that of the Central government employees, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced through a video message.

Currently, the Madhya Pradesh state government employees gets a total 31 per cent DA. The government had hiked 11 per cent DA to it's employees in March this year.

The hiked DA will be implemented from current month (August) and therefore, the state government employees will receive it in September month's salary, he announced.

"It would add around Rs 625 crore additional financial burden to the Madhya Pradesh government," Chouhan said.

It would benefit over seven crore state government employees. Last time, when 11 per cent DA was hiked, the state employees had demanded that they should also get equal to the Central government employees.

With just 15 months to go for the Assembly elections, Shivraj Singh Chouhan-led BJP government has fulfilled the employees' demand.