Hours after the the Cabinet approved a proposal to hike Dearness Allowance of Central Government employees by 6 per cent, Bengal Government employee’s union, backed by Oppostion parties, on Wednesday threatened a stir if their demand of a hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) is not met immediately.
While the left backed Coordination Committee questioned the State Government’s “wasteful expenditures in holding festivities almost every month and doling out crores of rupees to local clubs” the Congress leadership said “the Trinamool Congress will have to pay dearly in next year’s Assembly elections if they continue to ignore workers’ demands.”
Bengal sits at the bottom of the table giving only 65 per cent DA to its employees as against the Centre’s 119 per cent. Other States like Gujarat, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Assam Mizoram Nagaland give a DA of 113 per cent while Punjab gives 107 per cent a leader of Naba Parjay am independent Government employees’ union said alleging “whenever we make a representation for a DA hike the Government cites paucity of fund which is not true at all.”
This notwithstanding the fact that the Government has been spending crores on “wasteful expenditures like Maati Utsav, Rakhi Utsav, giving away awards and doling out crores to clubs,” sources complained.
The Government spent `105 crore in 2013 for making grants to clubs throughout the State it spent `65 crore for organising Maati Utsav this year. `8 crore was spent on account of Rakhi Utsav whence funds were given to councillors and ward commissioners to celebrate Raksha Bandhan in their localities.