Mon Apr 28 09:06:48 UTC 2025: ## Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Announces Sweeping Benefits for Government Employees

**Chennai, April 28, 2025** – Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin today announced a series of welfare measures for the state’s government employees and pensioners, totaling billions of rupees in additional expenditure. The announcements, made in the state assembly, include significant improvements to several existing benefit programs and address long-standing concerns.

Key highlights of the announcements include:

* **Restoration of Earned Leave (EL) Surrender System:** The system, suspended due to financial constraints during the COVID-19 pandemic, will be reinstated from October 1st, 2025, benefiting 800,000 employees and costing the state an additional ₹3,561 crore annually. This was previously slated for April 1st, 2026.

* **Dearness Allowance (DA) Hike:** Following the Union government’s lead, a 2% increase in DA will be implemented from January 1st, 2025, impacting over 16 lakh employees, teachers, and pensioners at a cost of ₹1,252 crore annually.

* **Enhanced Festival Advance:** The festival advance will be doubled from ₹10,000 to ₹20,000 for approximately 800,000 employees.

* **Increased Education Advance:** The education advance will be raised to ₹1 lakh for professional programs and ₹50,000 for arts, science, and polytechnic programs.

* **Substantial Marriage Advance Hike:** The marriage advance will be significantly increased to ₹5 lakh from ₹6,000 for men and ₹10,000 for women.

* **Increased Pongal Gift for Pensioners:** The Pongal gift for C and D group pensioners and family pensioners will be doubled from ₹500 to ₹1,000, affecting 4.7 lakh recipients and costing an additional ₹24 crore.

* **Higher Festival Advance for Pensioners:** The festival advance for pensioners will increase from ₹4,000 to ₹6,000, adding ₹10 crore to state expenditure.

* **Addressing Maternity Leave Seniority:** The government will address the issue of women employees losing seniority during maternity leave while on probation.

* **Old Pension Scheme Review:** The committee reviewing the Old Pension Scheme, Contributory Pension Scheme, and Unified Pension Scheme will be required to submit its report by September 30th, 2025.

These measures represent a significant investment in the welfare of Tamil Nadu’s public sector workforce and pensioners. The total cost of these new benefits will amount to several billion rupees annually.

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