Bengal Govt says 'no leave' as employees call strike on Feb 20-21

As the platform of state government employees called for a two-day cease work on 20-21 February in protest against the "meager" hike in their dearness allowance (DA), the West Bengal government has now said that no employee will be granted casual or any other leave for the 48-hour strike.

The 'Sangrami Joutho Mancha' comprising 18 state government employees associations on February 16 called for the cease work and vowed not to deviate from the path of agitation till the DA is hiked adequately and the gap between the central and state DA is bridged.

As per the government notification, "It has been decided that no casual leave for absence either in the first half of the day or in the second half or for the whole day nor any other leave shall be granted to any employee on these dates. The employees who were on leave on February 17 shall have to report for duty on February 20."

The notification said the offices will include those receiving state grants including educational institutions. The notice made exceptions to cases of hospitalization of employees, bereavement in family, "severe illness and absence continuing prior to February 17 and employees on child care leave, maternity leave, medical leave, and earned leave sanctioned prior to February 17, 2023."

If an employee fails to attend office on either of these two days, and his leave application on above mentioned grounds is not approved, he or she will be show-caused and disciplinary action issued against the person, the notice signed by Additional Chief Secretary Manoj Pant said.

Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya while presenting the budget on February 15 announced an additional three percent of DA for government employees and others, who were demanding the same at par with the Centre.

The platform of agitating state government employees stated that while central government employees get DA at 38 percent of their basic salary, their state counterparts after a three percent hike will get DA at six percent of their basic salary.

A spokesperson of 'Sangrami Joutho Manch' while speaking to reporters had said, "We are holding the sit-in near Sahid Minar for 21 days on the DA issue, but this government is ignoring the legitimate demand of the state employees. We want to be paid the same amount of DA as the central government employees and not peanuts."