Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari will hold a meeting with four unions of Bengal government employees on May 30 to hear their grievances over the due dearness allowance and the DA gap between the state staff and their central government counterparts.
“The chief minister will hold a meeting with four unions — State Government Employees’ Federation, Unity Forum, Karmachari Parishad and Sangrami Joutho Mancha — on May 30 at Nabanna Sabhaghar. This is the first time in recent memory that a chief minister will hold talks with all employees’ unions. The main agenda of the meeting will be the DA of the employees,” said a senior state government official.
The state government employees are unhappy that the new BJP dispensation did not say anything about the due DA, even though two cabinet meetings had already been held.
However, the government had announced the establishment of the seventh pay commission for the employees at the second cabinet meeting on Monday.
The employees are worried about two aspects of the DA. First, the dues between 2008 and 2019, which the Supreme Court had asked the state government to clear. The previous government cleared only a portion of the due DA following the court order.
The second is related to the due DA since 2020, when the sixth pay commission was implemented in Bengal.
“We know that the new government will clear the DA dues for the period between 2008 and 2019. But we are eager to know about the government’s stance on the existing DA due, which has reached 42 per cent compared to the central government employees,” said a state government
employee.
Right now, the state government employees get 18 per cent DA compared to 60 per cent of the central staff.
“We need to hear a clear word on these dues, as the BJP had given hope to the employees that the arrears would be cleared if the government was changed. The government employees and their families have voted in favour of the BJP with the hope that the situation would change and the double-engine government would clear all dues of the employees,” said an employee in the finance department.
A senior state government official said the Suvendu dispensation was sympathetic to the employees’grouse.
“The chief minister would get to hear from them on May 30 and let them know about the stance of the government,” said an official.
However, it would be tough to clear the entire DA dues.
According to an estimate prepared by the finance department, the state would require ₹40,000 crore to clear the DA dues accumulated between 2008 and 2019. “The previous government had cleared only a small portion of the dues, and the major portion of the burden will have to be shouldered by the new administration,” said an official.
If the state wants to bridge the existing DA gap, it has to spend more than ₹30,000 crore annually.
“It is almost impossible for the struggling state exchequer to shoulder such a huge burden. The employees are eagerly waiting to hear from the chief minister in such a situation,” said a leader of an employees’ union.
