Kolkata: The West Bengal Government in an affidavit to the Calcutta High Court admitted its inability to provide dearness allowance to its employees in view of the current situation of the government exchequer. The State Government in the affidavit informed the High Court that if it had to pay any more dearness allowance it may have a catastrophic impact on the economy of the state.
The State Government in the affidavit, submitted by Chief Secretary Harikrishna Dwivedi, stated that as per ROPA Rules 2019, the state has already provided a dearness allowance of 16 per cent to government employees despite the financial crunch adding that keeping in mind the state's budget for the current financial year, it cannot afford to pay any more dearness allowance.
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Earlier in May, a division bench of Justice Harish Tandon and Rabindranath Samanta instructed the State Government to provide the due dearness allowance to State government employees within three months. The State Government's review petition over the issue was rejected by the division bench following which the State Government challenged the order in the Supreme Court.
Latching on to the issue, the Opposition parties targeted the Trinamool Congress government over the financial condition of West Bengal. Dubbing the Trinamool Congress government as "bankrupt" BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar said " The state should give the same amount of DA as the central government. I don't think that the state does not have money. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee going to Chennai for the birthday of the Governor. There are fairs being held in the State. There is no shortage of money when political meetings are held in the name of administrative meetings."
