West Bengal Government Workers Protest for Equal Dearness Allowance at 'Nabanna'

A group of West Bengal government workers began a three-day sit-in protest on Friday in front of the state secretariat, "Nabanna," calling for the release of dearness allowance to be granted to them on the same terms as their counterparts in the central government.

On Thursday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declared that state government employees would receive an extra 4% of their salary starting in January.

To support their demand for the release of DA on par with central government employees, members of the Sangrami Joutha Mancha sat on the dharna near the 'Nabanna,' the chief minister's office, holding placards and posters and shouting slogans.

The Sangrami Joutha Mancha members asserted that there would still be a 36 percentage point gap between the DA of state government employees and central government employees even after the chief minister's announcement of an additional 4% DA to state government employees.

The organization was granted conditional permission by the Calcutta High Court on Thursday to hold the demonstration for three days starting on Friday at the Nabanna bus terminus, which is close to the state secretariat in Howrah city.

Judge Rajasekhar Mantha gave the petitioners strict instructions to follow through on their promise to guarantee that there isn't any interruption to traffic or general public inconvenience.

The petitioners also consented to cap the number of participants in the sit-in demonstration at 300, the court further noted.

The court ruled that Howrah, the commissioner of police, would have the authority to impose further limitations on top of those that are already posted on the police website, which would be applicable to all protests held within the city.

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