State Employees Demonstrate Outside The West Bengal Assembly To Call For An Increase In The Dearness Allowance
Employees of the state government demonstrated outside the West Bengal assembly in Kolkata on 23 November, calling for an increase in the dearness allowance to bring them online with those of the central government. Since the implementation of the seventh pay commission, the employees have been protesting for months since the Mamata Banerjee government has not given them the revised dearness allowance.
According to news reports, after presenting the proposals of the seventh pay panel in January 2016, the Center approved 34% DA of the basic salary for its employees. The government has only provided 3% DA in West Bengal so far, which is much less than the national average.
Regional news sources claim that since Banerjee took office, the Trinamool government has refrained from paying DA to state employees and teachers. Estimates from the state indicate that there are over 20,000 crore rupees in outstanding payments, a staggering sum for the state’s ruling administration given its financial difficulties.
After a workers’ union petitioned the government in May of this year, the Calcutta High Court ordered the state government to pay the arrears within the following three months. The employees’ unions filed a contempt of court petition in the High Court before the division bench of Justices Harish Tandon and Rabindranath Samanta after the time had passed.
In the interim, the state government had submitted a review petition to the High Court asking the judges to reconsider an earlier ruling that required its employees to receive their back pay and any outstanding arrears within three months. The request had been denied by the HC.
The West Bengal Chief Secretary and Finance Secretary were ordered to submit affidavits by November 4 explaining why contempt of court proceedings should not be started against them by the division bench on September 22. Now that the case has been filed, the state government has petitioned the Supreme Court for redress.
The move by the Mamata Banerjee administration has garnered criticism, as several opposition leaders have criticized the state cabinet for disregarding workers’ fundamental needs. Even some political figures have questioned Banerjee’s choice to focus on pandals for Durga Puja rather than the welfare of her employees.
Earlier this month, Parliamentary Affairs and Agriculture Minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay assured the state assembly that necessary steps would be taken in this regard and stated that the government was putting the needs of the underprivileged communities first, which is why the DA payment was being delayed.
Furthermore, he claimed that state government workers could wait because they could afford to feed their families twice a day even though they were still owed DA arrears.
News Mania Desk
