DA crisis: Bengal govt might act tough against employees agitating in Delhi

Kolkata, April 9 (IANS) The AWest Bengal government is considering taking tough disciplinary action against 500 state government employees who will be participating at the two-day sit-in demonstration at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi on Monday and Tuesday as protest against the non-payment of dearness allowance arrears by the state government.

Besides staging the two-day sit-in demonstration under the banner of the joint forum of state government employees, a delegation of the agitators is also likely to meet the President Droupadi Murmu and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar or at least one of them and highlight their points of arguments in the matter. They also expected to send a memorandum to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on this count.

State government sources said that the administration is viewing this agitation at New Delhi as a direct attempt by the joint forum to malign the state government and destabilise normal administrative functioning instigated by the opposition forces in the state.

Even the joint forum office bearers are aware of the possible punitive steps to be taken by the state administrative authorities.

"According to information available with us, the state government might order mass transfer of those participating at the agitation in the national capital. They did the same thing after we participated in the one-day strike last month. We are also ready to combat the state government onslaughts in the legal," a forum representative said.

Meanwhile, after the Calcutta High Court advised the West Bengal government to arrange a solution meeting with the agitators by April 17, the joint forum has agreed to send a three-member delegation for the meeting.

However, the forum has set three pre-conditions for the meeting.

The conditions include withdrawal of the state government petition at the apex court challenging the verdict of a division bench of the high court last year directing the government to clear Dearness Allowance arrears, withdrawal of show-cause notice issued to the some employees for participating in a strike last month, and finally withdrawal of the orders for punitive transfers to certain employees for participating in the strike.