In some great news for government employees in this tough pandemic affected situation, monetary relief has been announced and this will help in dealing with rising prices to some extent. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to hike Dearness Allowance (DA) of state government employees by 3 per cent. She said state treasury will never go dry for government employees even though central government is yet to releases state dues of Rs 85,000 crore.
Banerjee made this announcement while addressing Trinamool Congress workers at the state secretariat. She said the Centre owes the state on UGC grants, GST and amount required to fight Covid 19 and other issues in the state.
“We are not getting financial dues, there is also dues of Rs 8,000 cr in GST. We have fulfilled all pay commission recommendations despite financial crisis. We will also pay 3% DA from January 2021,” West Bengal Chief Minister said.
She said the move will cause extra burden of Rs 2200 crore on the state exchequer. “Despite the Centre not clearing the state’s dues of more than Rs 85000 crore, we will not stop short of paying clearing our government employees dues,” she added.
Banerjee said 9.5 lakh students of 14,000 upper middle schools and 636 Madrasas will be given free of cost tablets. She said the state has also made corona test affordable by capping RT-PCR test at Rs 950. Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister while inaugurating much-awaited Majerhat flyover. This comes two years after the 40-year-old flyover collapsed killing 2 persons.
