Kolkata, Feb 21: Different associations of West Bengal government employees, barring the one affiliated with the ruling Trinamool Congress, are set to launch a two-pronged offensive against the state government ahead of the forthcoming Assembly elections later this year over the issue of payment of dearness allowance (DA) at par with Central government employees and clearance of arrears pending since 2008.
While one part of the proposed two-pronged offensive will involve legal action, the other will consist of street protests, including demonstrations planned near the residence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. On the legal front, Sangrami Joutho Mancha (Revolutionary United Front), an umbrella body representing different associations of state government employees, has already approached the Supreme Court and filed a contempt petition against the West Bengal government.
The petition accuses the state government of failing to initiate steps to implement the apex court’s order earlier this month directing it to pay 25 per cent of the DA arrears between 2008 and 2019 immediately and in any case before the end of the current financial year 2025–26.
At the same time, different constituent organisations of the umbrella body have announced a series of protest programmes in the coming days and in the run-up to the Assembly elections later this year to press for their demands. The West Bengal Coordination Committee, a CPI(M)-backed association of state government employees, has announced that it will organise a protest march on February 26 from Esplanade in central Kolkata to near the Chief Minister’s residence at Kalighat on the same issue.
“Despite the Supreme Court’s clear order and step-by-step instructions on DA payments, the state government is attempting to delay the implementation on one pretext or another. Hence, we have decided to organise protests on the streets along with continuing our legal battle in the matter,” said Coordination Committee general secretary Biswajit Gupta Chowdhury. Since the Supreme Court passed its order earlier this month, the Chief Minister has avoided making detailed public comments on the issue, stating that the matter is sub judice.
However, Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari criticised the Chief Minister’s position and questioned how the matter could remain sub judice after the apex court had already delivered its order.
Meanwhile, preliminary estimates suggest that implementing the Supreme Court’s order will cost the state exchequer over Rs 10,000 crore immediately and around Rs 42,000 crore in the long term.
IANS
