Bengal’s new BJP government on Monday announced a 20 per cent dearness allowance hike for its 8 lakh employees, state-aided institute staff and pensioners in its first budget, while promising to bridge the gap between state and central employees by the next budget.
Finance minister Swapan Dasgupta announced that the enhanced DA would come into effect on October 1.
He added that “the state government will fill one lakh vacancies in government offices, of which 33 per cent will be reserved for women”.
Normally, the employees would have received their hiked October DA along with that month’s salary in November. But chief minister Suvendu Adhikari told a news conference that the October DA would be brought forward and given sometime in October itself.
The hike will raise Bengal government employees’ DA from the current 18 per cent of their salaries to 38 per cent, still well below their central government counterparts’ 60 per cent. The difference has accumulated since January 1, 2020, on the watch of the erstwhile Trinamool Congress government.
“The state government employees, semi-government employees, teachers and non-teaching staff play an important role in the government’s work and policy implementation,” Dasgupta said in his budget speech at the Assembly.
“To recognise their contribution, I am happy to announce an additional 20 per cent dearness allowance… (that) will come into effect from 1st October.”
Later, addressing the media in the Assembly, Suvendu said: “We took over (charge) only about a month and a half ago. We are able to announce 20 per cent DA for the time being.
“Give us some time to clear all the mess created by the previous government; we will try to bridge the DA gap by the next budget.”
Suvendu said the seventh pay commission, set up by his government, would hand in its report by December, and its recommendations would be implemented by January next year.
He added that his government would consider setting up an eighth pay commission by 2028-29.
Finance department officials said the additional 20 per cent DA would cost the exchequer ₹15,600 crore a year.
Several employees said that while they were happy with the DA hike, they wished the government had decided to implement it from July.
A minister, however, said the employees should keep in mind that they had received only 18 per cent DA from 2020 till now, and the new government had enhanced it in its first budget.
“We cannot implement anything right now as the interim budget prepared by the previous government would be in place till the end of June,” the minister, who sought anonymity, said.
“During the second quarter between July and September, the new government will need funds to provide benefits to the downtrodden. From October, government employees will start getting benefits.”
Govt jobs
Dasgupta said that of the 1 lakh government vacancies to be filled, 50,000 involved the posts of teachers, professors, and non-teaching staff at schools and colleges. Some 20,000 vacancies were in the police and another 1,000 in the Eastern Frontier Rifles.
The state intends to reserve 10 per cent of the vacancies for demobbed Agniveers, wherever possible.