The government has hiked dearness allowance by 5 per cent for central government employees and pensioners, said Union minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday.

“The Union government has hiked the dearness allowance by 5 per cent. About 50 lakh central government employees and 65 lakh pensioners will benefit from the hike,” information and broadcasting minister Javadekar said, after a cabinet meeting.

The increase in dearness allowance will cost the government Rs 16,000 crore annually, the Union minister added.

The government has also increased the Aadhaar seeding date till November 30 to allow availing of benefits worth Rs 6,000 under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, Javadekar said.

'The cabinet has decided to relax till 30th November, 2019, the mandatory requirement of Aadhaar seeding for release of benefits under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi after 1st August, 2019,' Javadekar told media after the meeting.

In another decision, the government approved the compensation of Rs 5.5 lakh for each of the 5,300 displaced Kashmiri families.

“These 5,3000 families were not included in the scheme in 2016 when Prime Minister Narednra Modi had decided to offer compensation to displaced Kashmiri families for rehabilitation as they were not in Jammu and Kashmir then,” said the Union minister.

Talking about other achievements by the central government, Javadekar said there has been a significant reduction in malaria cases in India. The decline in cases has been praised by World Health Organisation, said the information and broadcasting minister.