(MENAFN- IANS) Kolkata, Oct 2 (IANS) With the Union Cabinet having approved a further three per cent increase in Dearness Allowance (DA) rates for Central government employees and pensioners earlier this week, the gap in the DA rates paid to the West Bengal government employees as compared to that to be received by their counterparts in the Union government has increased further.

With the latest hike, the DA rates to be received by the Central government employees will be 58 per cent, as against the paltry amount of 18 per cent received by the West Bengal government employees, making the gap as high as 40 per cent.

In the wake of the rising gap, the United Forum of State Government Employees, the umbrella body of the state government employees spearheading the movement demanding DA payment at par with the Central government employees, as well as the arrears accrued on it, is planning a major and continued protest movement on this issue immediately after the ongoing festive season is over by the month-end.

According to the forum convener Bhaskar Ghosh, state government employees in no other state in the country are victims of such a huge gap in the DA received by them and their counterparts in the Union government.

“No other state government in India except that of the West Bengal government deprives the state government employees in such a manner. There are many states in India that are economically weaker than Bengal. But nowhere are the state government employees deprived in such a manner,” Ghosh claimed.

Earlier this year, a Division Bench of the Supreme Court had directed the West Bengal government to pay 25 per cent of the DA arrears to the state government staff at the earliest. However, the state government filed a review petition at the apex court on that order.

Recently, both the West Bengal government and the different associations of state government employees made their written submissions in the matter to the apex court.

The state government argued that under Article 309 of the Indian Constitution, every state government had the right to determine the salaries and allowances of its employees and no state government was obliged to follow the DA policy adopted by the Centre.

The state government employees' associations have argued that the All India Consumer Price Index (AICPI) should be followed as the benchmark for calculating and determining DA for the West Bengal government employees, since that is the benchmark followed for determining the DA rates by the Union government and most state governments.

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