Kolkata: In a major setback for the West Bengal government, the Supreme Court on Friday had asked the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government to pay 25 per cent of pending DA to the state government employees.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta issued the order asking the Bengal government to pay the DA within three months until the next hearing in August.
The dispute began between a section of state government employees and the state administration when the employees asked the government to pay DA at par with the central government employees including arrears.
The Calcutta High Court in May 2022 ordered the Bengal government to pay DA to state employees at the rate applicable for Central government employees. Following the order, the state government challenged this decision of Calcutta High Court and moved the Supreme Court via an appeal in November 2022.
Senior CPI (M) leader and lawyer Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said that that while the apex court initially asked to pay the entire arrear, the lawyer representing the state government mentioned in the court that the government will be in a ‘fix’ financially if they had to pay the entire arrear.
“The lawyer representing the state government said it right that the government will be in a fix if they had to pay the entire arrear at a go. On hearing this the Justices had asked to pay at least 25 per cent until the next hearing in August. The Bengal government instead of doing needful spends money on wrong things. They build temples and give doles during pujas which a state government should not be doing,” said Bhattacharya.
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikatri said, “I welcome the direction given by the Hon’ble Justices Sanjay Karol and Sandeep Mehta of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, to the West Bengal Government, for immediately releasing 25% of the DA Arrears of the West Bengal Government Employees, pending till now. This is a huge victory for all the West Bengal Government Employees, who have been persistently fighting against the unreasonable and hard-hearted State Govt of WB for long, knocking on the doors of the Tribunals to the Hon'ble Supreme Court. Mamata Banerjee had asserted that "DA is not a Right". Today's Supreme direction establishes that DA indeed is a Right.”
Bhaskar Ghosh, the leader of the DA protest said that they are partly happy with the verdict of the Supreme Court.
Another DA protestor, urged the state government not to spend further money in a review petition in the apex court by the taxpayers money.
“It is a slap on the state government. It is a winning situation for the state government employees. We hope that paying of the remaining arrears will be ordered in the next hearing,” said the protestor.
