This Diwali, Punjab's government school computer teachers got a gift that lands on the payslip, not the mantelpiece. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced on Saturday, 7 November 2026 that the state has raised the Dearness Allowance for 6,507 PICTES computer teachers by a historic 40 percentage points — lifting it from 181% to 221% — and extended salary-related benefits to 1,007 non-teaching staff working under the Samagra Shiksha scheme.

Who are the PICTES teachers and what changes for them

PICTES — the Punjab Information and Communication Technology Education Society — employs computer teachers deployed across government schools statewide. These positions have historically sat outside mainstream service rules, leaving teachers on contractual or society-based terms that made DA revisions a years-long demand. A 40-percentage-point single-step hike is among the steeper DA corrections the state has announced in a single order, taking the effective DA rate to 221% of basic pay.

The revision means a tangible monthly increase in take-home salary for each of the 6,507 teachers. For a cadre that has long argued its compensation lagged behind regular government schoolteachers, the move closes — at least partially — a persistent grievance.

Samagra Shiksha staff: from regularization to salary parity

The second announcement covers 1,007 non-teaching employees under Samagra Shiksha, the Central government's integrated school-education scheme launched in 2018-19 by merging the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan, and related programmes. These staff — clerks, data-entry operators, and support workers — were regularized by the Punjab government in a move announced earlier this year. Saturday's decision translates that regularization into concrete salary benefits, completing the two-step transition from contractual to fully pensionable service terms.

The sequencing matters. Regularization without salary revision can leave employees technically permanent but practically worse off. By now attaching pay-scale benefits, the state government closes a gap that has tripped up similar regularization drives in other states.

AAP's 2022 pledge and the incremental payoff

When the Aam Aadmi Party swept Punjab in the March 2022 assembly elections, regularization of contractual government employees was a cornerstone promise. The government has since moved department by department — from health workers to anganwadi helpers — in a series of announcements that have consistently been timed around festivals or state events for maximum visibility. Saturday's Diwali-day announcement fits that established pattern precisely.

The finance department's formal orders implementing the revised DA and new salary structures for both groups will be the next document to watch. Until gazette notifications land, the quantum of additional monthly outgo on the state exchequer — and the exact implementation date — remain to be formally notified.

For thousands of education workers who spent years teaching Punjab's children to code and compute, this Diwali the government finally upgraded their own numbers.