West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday announced that the State government will clear all pending Dearness Allowance (DA) for State employees from January. “We don’t have money but still we shall release the DA dues by January,” she said.
Ms.Bannerjee said while conducting an administrative review meeting in Birbhum district. The announcement comes days after Ms Banerjee announced crop neutral investment support scheme on the lines of Telangana's Rytu Bandhu scheme.
The announcement of DA dues will benefit about eight lakh State government employees. The Chief Minister blamed the Left Front government and asked s no effort made to bridge the wage difference of government employees for 34 years.
The issue of payment of DA to the State government had dragged in state appellate tribunal (SAT) at Calcutta High Court for a long time.
In August last year the Calcutta High Court had overturned (SAT) order DA was the sole discretion of the government and employees could not claim to have a right over it. Calcutta High Court ordered that DA was a legal right for all state government employees.