Supreme Court Directs West Bengal Govt To Release 25 Per Cent Pending DA, Protesting Employees Celebrate

Kolkata, Feb 05: Protesting state government employees rejoiced on Thursday after the Supreme Court directed the West Bengal government to immediately release 25 per cent of the outstanding Dearness Allowance (DA) to government employees.

Employees warn of bigger protests

Bashkar Ghosh, head of the protesting government employees, urged the state government to immediately release the amount as directed by the apex court.

“If the state government further delays the release of the amount, then there will be bigger protests across the state,” Ghosh said.

State had announced DA hike earlier

Notably, during the interim budget, the state government had announced a four per cent hike in DA for government employees.

Apex court sets up monitoring committee

Incidentally, the apex court has constituted a committee headed by former Supreme Court Justice Indu Malhotra, Justice Tilak Singh Chauhan and Justice Gautam Maghuria to oversee the process, as instructed by the court.

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BJP welcomes verdict, CM responds

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) welcomed the judgement of the apex court.

Reacting to the development, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she had not yet received a copy of the order.

“A committee will be made and will be headed by the Chief Secretary. We will consult with our lawyers and accordingly we will work. So far, I didn’t get any notice of the order,” Mamata said.