Madurai
Members of Tamil Nadu Government Employees’ Association (TNGEA) staged demonstrations in 39 places in the district on Friday, demanding the State government to immediately announce the increase in Dearness Allowance (DA).
K. Neethiraja, district secretary, TNGEA, said until last year, the norm was that the State government would adopt the increase in DA announced by Central government. “The Central government will announce the DA increase in March. Usually, by April, the State government will announce the same increase, which will retrospectively come into effect from January,” he said.
S. Jeyarajarajeswaran, district president, TNGEA, said that this year the Union government announced 3% hike in DA. “However, the State government is yet to announce the hike. We are already in May and there are no signs of the government making the announcement,” he said.
Mr. Neethiraja said that the announcement would not be a violation of the Model Code of Conduct, which is in place for Parliamentary election and by-election to Assembly constituencies. “This is a regular increase. Such announcements had been made in the past during elections,” he added.
Alleging that the State government had already failed to fulfil a number of genuine salary-related demands of employees, which resulted in an indefinite strike in January, the protesters said that the government must at least announce the DA increase without delay.
Mr. Jeyarajarajeswaran said that if the government did not fulfil the demand, further course of action would be taken by the State-level office-bearers of TNGEA next week.
According to TNGEA, more than 1,200 employees took part in the demonstrations in Madurai. Demonstrations happened in around 1,000 placess across Tamil Nadu, the association said.