DA dues order: Bengal Finance Department starts survey to ascertain number of eligible recipients

Kolkata, May 28 (IANS) In wake of the Supreme Court order earlier this month directing the West Bengal government to clear 25 per cent of the dearness allowance dues to the state government employees immediately, the state Finance Department has started a survey on the exact number of current and retired state government employees who will be eligible for the payment.

Sources from the state Finance Department said that initial estimates show the number of eligible recipients at around 10 lakh, which include those attached to different state government departments, state-run schools, affiliated bodies like municipalities and municipal corporations, and retired employees.

The employees appointed in 2019 or after will not be eligible for payment of such dearness allowance dues since the term of the last RoPA (Revision of Pay & Allowance) under the 5th Pay Commission, which was introduced in 2009 during the previous Left Front regime, ended in 2019. The tenure of one RoPA period is 10 years.

Now, one confusion has surfaced during this calculation survey, which is whether the teaching and non-teaching staff in state-run schools appointed in the 2016 panel and who have lost their jobs following a Supreme Court order last month will be eligible for payment of this 25 per cent dearness allowance dues or not.

The state government has yet to come to a final decision on the matter.

Besides surveying to find out the number of eligible employees, the state Finance Department officials are also busy with the task of exploring avenues to arrange funds for this payment, which is estimated to cost the state exchequer around Rs 12,000 crore or so.

All the members of the state cabinet, including Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, have refrained from making any comment so far on the Supreme Court order on payment of 25 per cent dearness allowance arrears immediately. The Chief Minister just said once earlier this month that she would not comment on the Supreme Court's order, but would act on it in a legal way.

--IANS

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