Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday announced a hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) of state government employees by 3 percent despite financial crisis due to the Covid situation, with the Centre owing Rs 85,000 crore to Bengal. "Despite passing through a worse financial crisis, neither the salary of the state government employees got delayed nor the DA was affected. This time, we have decided to give a hike in DA by 3 percent and it will come into effect from January 2021," Banerjee said adding that the state government had also accepted the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission that came into effect from January this year and the revision is the pay as per the recommendation that was carried out at a cost of Rs 14,000 crore. Banerjee made the announcement while interacting with state government employees at Nabanna Sabhaghar. The increase in DA by 3 percent will cost Rs 2,200 crore to the states exchequer. It may be mentioned that usually, the state government announces a hike of 2 percent in DA every year. So the announcement of a hike by 3 percent this time has been welcomed by the state government employees. After announcing the hike in DA, Banerjee also stated that the Central government employees are being bulldozed and not allowed to express their views. Jobs of many have gone as well. She also urged the employees unions to protest against the anti-people policies of the Centre and to hold rallies taking the deprived Central government employees with them.

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