The West Bengal BJP has decided to do a 'Tripura' in West Bengal. The West Bengal BJP has said that it would clear all dearness allowance (DA) dues of the employees of the West Bengal government and they would get payment at par with recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission of the Central government.
A similar promise in Tripura earned votes of the government employees for the BJP, allowing the saffron party to form a government in the state, which had been under CPI(M) rule for decades.
Dilip Ghosh, West Bengal BJP president, said that BJP would clear all the dues regarding dearness allowance of the 7 lakh government employees in West Bengal.
“If we come to power, we will ensure that the government employees get all their dues. Not only that, they would get salary at par with Central government staff if our government comes to power in West Bengal,” said Ghosh.
Interestingly, the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday took strong exception to an order given by the State Administrative Tribunal regarding the rights to dearness allowance of the government employees.
A few months back, the tribunal said in its order that DA was not a 'right' of employees but a benefit that the government gave to them. Against such an order, the West Bengal government employees association, affiliated to CPI(M), went to the Calcutta High Court.
With respect to the state government's argument of DA not being a right, a division bench of Calcutta High Court on Tuesday asked, “On what basis tribunal could say that?” The division bench has sought all records related to the government employees’ DA from the state government by Thursday.
State Advocate General Kishore Dutta opposed such a move by the employees association's counsel, requesting the High Court to accept the case for hearing. The court overruled that and sought the report from the state government as early as possible.
The DA for West Bengal government employees is approximately 50 per cent less than the DA for employees of the Central government and the Mamata Banerjee government has refused to pay up all the dues, further widening the gap between Centre and state employees.
The government employees association expressed satisfaction after the High Court accepted the case against the order of the State Administrative Tribunal.