Mamata Banerjee announces DA for state government employees ahead of Assembly polls
PTC News Desk: Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, on Sunday announced that her government will begin clearing pending dearness allowance (DA) arrears of state employees and pensioners starting in March this year. The decision will benefit teachers, non-teaching staff, and employees of grant-in-aid institutions.
The announcement comes amid a prolonged dispute between the state government and its employees over DA payments, a matter that has now reached the Supreme Court of India. The government’s move is being viewed by some observers as politically significant ahead of upcoming elections.
"I am happy to announce that our Ma-Mati-Manush government has delivered on its promise to all its employees and pensioners, and to lakhs of teachers and non-teaching staff of our educational institutions, as well as employees/ pensioners of our other grant-in-aid instititions like panchayats, municipal bodies, other local bodies etc," Banerjee said in a post on X.
"They will start receiving their ROPA 2009 DA arrears from March 2026 onwards as per the modalities detailed out in the Notifications issued by our Finance Department," she added.
The Bharatiya Janata Party criticised the announcement, with the party’s Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, dismissing it as a “joke”.
The dispute began when state employees approached the Calcutta High Court demanding DA parity with Central government staff, along with the payment of arrears. The case later moved through the West Bengal State Administrative Tribunal and eventually reached the Supreme Court.
In May 2022, the Calcutta High Court directed the Bengal government to pay DA to state employees at the same rate as the Central government. However, the state government challenged this ruling in the Supreme Court.
- With inputs from agencies
