equal to central government employees Dearness Allowance (D)An organization of state government employees in West Bengal has started a three-day protest near the state secretariat ‘Nabanna’ on Friday, demanding the release of earnings allowance. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday announced to give four percent additional dearness allowance (DA) to the state government employees from January next year. Members of the employee organization ‘Sangrami Jowtha Manch’ sat on a dharna near the Chief Minister’s office with placards and posters in their hands and raised slogans demanding release of DA at par with the Central Government employees.
The state government had filed a petition in the High Court
Responding to the petition of the state government, the division bench of Calcutta High Court has reduced the duration of the protest by Sangrami Joutha Manch protesting against DA. On Friday, a division bench of Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmoy Bhattacharya said that a 48-hour protest program can be organized at Nabanna bus stand. This demonstration will have to end by Saturday afternoon.
36 percent difference between DA of state government and central government employees
Members of Sangrami Joutha Manch claimed that even after the Chief Minister announced additional four percent DA to state government employees, there would be a 36 percent difference between the DA of state government and central government employees. The Calcutta High Court on Thursday gave conditional permission to the organization to protest at Nabanna Bus Terminal near the State Secretariat in Howrah city for three days from Friday.
Justice Rajasekhar Mantha directed the petitioners to abide by their undertaking to ensure that it does not cause any disruption to traffic or inconvenience to the public at large. The court also said that the petitioners have also agreed to limit the number of people participating in the protest to 300. The court directed that Howrah Police Commissioner will be empowered to impose restrictions for all protests in the city in addition to the restrictions already available on the police website. However, today the High Court has directed to end the protest by tomorrow.